By: Peter Jančič (Spletni časopis)
During Nataša Pirc Musar’s flight with the Leonardo helicopter from Portorož to Beltinci, which in recent days has become as famous as Urška Klakočar Zupančič’s flight to the New Year’s concert in Vienna on the government Falco, it was unusual that the President was not picked up by helicopter straight from a beach in Croatia.
Even stranger: why all the fuss over ten thousand euros, when once upon a time Danilo Türk burned through almost one hundred thousand euros for renting a private jet to Bosnia and Herzegovina?
And the distance is not much greater. So, is Pirc Musar worth less than Türk?
Style-wise, had she been picked up from the beach, it would have looked far more “presidential.” Especially if Tina Gaber had been watching it all unfold from the pool of the businessman whom the government had earlier appointed to important posts to “fix” public healthcare. In that case, Nataša Pirc Musar would have almost resembled Donald Trump. Except Trump, unlike our President, does not fight as vigorously against genocide and environmental pollution. He does, however, have his own helicopter and residence. Not to mention real presidential aircraft, far bigger than Pirc Musar’s Falcon.
Since I drove part of the route the President would have taken had she used an ordinary car, I can reveal from personal experience that there were no traffic jams on the road from Ljubljana to Beltinci. I avoided them too, though not by helicopter. The police do not provide me with one yet. On my way toward Styria, I left the highway at Celje and rejoined it at Slovenske Konjice. On the return, I exited at Slovenska Bistrica and got back on at Celje. The air there, thanks to the proximity of Pohorje, is much cleaner. Sometimes, for cleaner air, it is necessary to exit even earlier, at Fram, just past Maribor. It depends on the length of tourist traffic jams and parked trucks along the highway, features of the rule of our environmental guardians, who make sure working people and vacationers are not too exhausted from constant driving.
In short, I drove along the road we once used for cycling marathons around Pohorje. And yes, there is sometimes congestion there too, because the air is so good. So, we completely understand the President for not wanting to further annoy people or worsen environmental pollution in those regions.
After all, the emissions from large state limousines are no small matter.
So, she flew.
The troubles facing Pirc Musar and her private presidential security, which she is now getting under a special decree by Prime Minister Golob, since government police cannot be trusted after Golob’s purges, as he himself showed by establishing his own private security at the start of his mandate, were bigger than mine. Highway rest stops, managed by DARS under Gibanje Svoboda’s leadership, are a feature on all motorways, not just the Ljubljana–Maribor one.
If an environmentally conscious stateswoman reacts to this by requiring police escorts with flashing lights and overtaking parked cars in the middle lane, there is a risk Bojan Požar will report it as abuse of mandatory rest breaks, with footage provided by security guards who cannot be trusted. Not wanting to weave through resting vehicles, they simply hand material over to journalists. The upside: the President gets helicopter speed, plus more holiday time away from motorways.
Požar this time revealed that our President honoured the police helicopter Leonardo, which, like the government Falcon, is suitable for transporting the injured but less so for the healthcare system, hence the government is now ordering additional ones specifically for healthcare.
Likely, he learned this from envious bodyguards, who would rather ride helicopters themselves than sit in traffic.
Other media and journalists, as usual in August, were on vacation. At the seaside or stuck in holiday traffic. For a day or two. Then we woke up.
I, during the President’s flight, was in Slovenske gorice, working. A beautiful helicopter flew overhead, a rare sight there. It looked like a Leonardo. Whether the President was inside, I could not see. I was deeply moved with joy just to spot it.
Požar’s story that the President was indeed in the bird later attracted great attention, since countless citizens and tourists resting on what used to be motorways cheered the sight of their President in the sky – the same President who had promised during her campaign to care about carbon footprints and who spoke at global summits to solve the planet’s environmental and other crises.
Now, from a helicopter, she observed how lines of idling cars on motorways, with engines and ACs running, increased pollution.
From the Leonardo, you can see this well. And the cost of such a flight, reportedly under 10,000 euros according to POP TV, excluding VAT and extra costs, is a mere trifle for such a scientific observation.
On top of that, this “scientific” opportunity gave Pirc Musar extra seaside holiday time, badly needed for her hard work against genocide that Europe refuses to recognise. Even though it is clear that genocide occurs when you try to free hostages kidnapped from Gaza and stop regular rocket fire on Israel in the name of peace.
And truly, the cost is pocket change when compared to what Türk paid for a private jet to BiH. Türk too fights for innocent victims in Gaza. He even brings them to Slovenia, where they apply for asylum.
For all her achievements, the President deserves more. At the very least, her own Leonardo helicopter. The ones the government is currently buying for healthcare are not really suitable for that purpose anyway. But they would suffice for the President.
Especially since she still does not even have the residence Joc Pečečnik once promised her.
And that, in fact, is the real problem everyone overlooked this summer.
