By: Dr Vinko Gorenak
I have publicly said several times that when Urška Klakočar Zupančič leaves her post as president of the National Assembly, I will write a special column dedicated specifically to her, because I feel personally responsible for the fact that she became president of the National Assembly in the first place. You may not have understood me, but the truth is exactly that.
It was the year 2021. Someone I knew sent me an email with a screenshot from Facebook in which Urška Klakočar Zupančič was telling her “friends” at length that Janez Janša was a criminal and all sorts of other things. My source warned me that she was a judge at the Ljubljana court. I checked the matter and found that my source’s claims were accurate.
I published all of this on my website, www.vinkogorenak.net. Moreover, I informed the president of the Supreme Court, Damijan Florjančič, and the Judicial Council. To my great surprise, the president of the Supreme Court replied that if my claims were correct, such conduct by a judge was unacceptable and that he would initiate appropriate procedures. The Judicial Council also replied that they would examine the matter.
Two more surprises followed. Urška Klakočar Zupančič was removed from the position of head of the department she had been leading. And the Judicial Council unanimously took my side. A disciplinary procedure was initiated against her, but in the spirit of “a crow does not peck out another crow’s eye”, the judges acquitted her. She, however, added two and two together and left the judiciary.
At the same time, she announced and filed a lawsuit against me, claiming that I had broken into her private Facebook profile, which of course was not true. And so, we met in court in Trbovlje. I was there with my lawyer, Franci Matoz, and on the other side were Urška Klakočar Zupančič and her lawyer, Nataša Pirc Musar. Pirc Musar said to me at the time: “Apologise to her, let’s end this story.” I replied: “Nataša, you will lose this in Trbovlje, in Ljubljana, or in Strasbourg.”
That is how things ended then. But lo and behold. One day afterwards, a security‑intelligence contact known to both of us called me and said that Urška Klakočar Zupančič wanted to withdraw the lawsuit and reach a settlement with me. I simply told him to give her my phone number. She then sent me an SMS saying: “I hear you want to apologise to me.” I replied that this would never happen, but that we could meet and talk.
And that is what happened. We met in one of the hotels in Ljubljana. I saw that she had been brought there by a younger man. We agreed that she would withdraw the lawsuit, and I would remove the year‑old post from my website, which had already been seen by anyone who wanted to see it anyway.
To be honest, at that time I had no idea what her political plans were. Had I known then that this court settlement between us would in practice become her ticket into politics, I would never have signed it. But hindsight makes generals of us all.
With my signature on that court settlement, I effectively enabled her rise to the position of president of the National Assembly. I regret it, and I apologise to you for it.
In the role of president of the National Assembly, however, Urška Klakočar Zupančič hit rock bottom. From dancing on the carpet at a state ceremony and showing her backside to the Slovenian flag and the guards, to adopting a monkey in Africa, insulting opposition MPs, and lifting the skirt of MP Aleksander Reberšek – all of these were actions unworthy of the office she held.
It is therefore no surprise that Golob sent her from her home district of Šiška to an unwinnable constituency in central Ljubljana. He knew exactly what she did not: he knew he wanted to get rid of her – and he did.
I wish you all the best, Urška Klakočar Zupančič. I had a decisive influence on your appointment as president of the National Assembly, and I regret it.
