By: Gašper Blažič
It appears that KD Group will be the new owner of the Moskovič Villa, the well-known building on Levstikova Street in Ljubljana, which served as the headquarters of the SD party for many years. Two years ago, SD relocated to (rented) premises on Nazorjeva Street, a project overseen by their then-secretary, Klemen Žibert.
As is well known, the scandals that followed led to Tanja Fajon stepping down from the leadership of the party, preceded by the resignation of secretary Klemen Žibert. The plan was for the May 1st Institute, one of the party’s civil society extensions, to remain in the Moskovič Villa. However, this plan fell through, and the villa had to be relinquished. As of March last year, it was still listed for sale at 2 million euros, but now it seems a buyer has been found.
Catastrophic financial management of SD
Judging by its financial operations, SD has proven to be a catastrophically poor manager. According to Dnevnik, SD accumulated the largest part of its debt with Delavska hranilnica, to which it owes close to 700,000 euros. Nearly a quarter of this debt was incurred from the renovation of the rented premises on Nazorjeva Street, where the party has been headquartered for the past two years. These premises were furnished by the Grosuplje-based company Drugačno pohištvo, which remains unpaid. The company secured its claim with a mortgage, and the deadline for debt repayment expired five days ago.
The sale price of 1.6 million euros for the villa on Levstikova Street is expected to cover the mentioned debts. According to 24ur, the party has already settled the real estate transfer tax. KD Group reportedly intends to renovate the villa and convert it into office spaces, as further reported by the media.
SD acquired the Moskovič Villa for free from the state!
If the deal concerning the Moskovič Villa were assessed by the same standards as the Trenta affair, the entire situation would be highly questionable. SD, at that time still ZLSD (after the merger of ZKS-SDP, the Social Democratic Union, and the Workers’ Party), acquired the property in 1993 through an exchange deal for part of the premises on Tomšičeva Street, which is now part of the Parliament. Previously, the headquarters of the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Slovenia (CK ZKS) was located there. While new political parties that did not emerge from the former socio-political organisations had to buy or rent their premises with their own funds, the proud successor of the League of Communists received the Moskovič Villa essentially for free.
Let us recall: the premises on Tomšičeva Street belonged to the Ban’s Administration before World War II, then were appropriated by the Communist Party of Slovenia, later renamed the League of Communists of Slovenia. The Moskovič Villa was confiscated after the war, as Felix Moskovič, the villa’s late owner, was accused of collaborating with the Gestapo, even though he was a victim of Nazi persecution. Subsequently, his brother-in-law, Ignjat Lajtner, inherited the property after the war. When the villa was returned, Lajtner sold it to Dana Kos in 1947. Fourteen years later, the same owner sold the villa to public property. Officially, the Socialist Republic of Slovenia became the owner of the property in 1982, meaning the state owned the Moskovič Villa for about eleven years.
It is worth noting that after the villa was sold, Tone Fajfar, who was officially a Christian socialist before the war but secretly a member of the Communist Party of Slovenia (KPS), lived there. Dana Kos was merely the formal owner of the property and never lived in the villa. In 1953, the authorities even attempted to confiscate the villa again (though they were forced to revoke this under intervention from Belgrade). The entire land surrounding the villa, including the plot where the building stood, had already been nationalised. This means the sale of the villa in 1961 was effectively a coerced transaction, as it was impossible for the owner to manage a building on land that had already been nationalised. A recalculation of the value showed that the state paid Dana Kos approximately 320,000 euros in today’s value for the villa, equivalent to nearly 13 million dinars at the time.
GURS valuation: 800,000 euros, SD sells for double!
In October last year, Reporter reported that the Surveying and Mapping Authority of the Republic of Slovenia (GURS) valued the Moskovič Villa at approximately 800,000 euros. KD Group has now paid double that amount. Considering that SD paid not a single tolar for the building in 1993, the comparison with the Trenta affair naturally arises. In the latter case, three individuals (Janez Janša, Branko Kastelic, and Klemen Gantar) were accused of causing financial damage to the company Imos because it purchased Janša’s former property in Trenta for a price significantly less than 150,000 euros. Here, however, we are talking about 1.5 million euros for a property that SD essentially received for free, paid for by taxpayers. Truly a case of Slovenian Butale!