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Monday, February 17, 2025

It seems that Janković’s task is to prevent the emergence of protests in Slovenia following the example of Serbia: he speaks of the misuse of the tragedy in Novi Sad for a “political agenda” because he knows that something similar could happen in Slovenia at any moment!

By: Gašper Blažič

We reported on the response of Ljubljana’s mayor, Zoran Janković, to the situation in Serbia and the resignation of the country’s prime minister, Miloš Vučević.

It is no secret that Janković is friends with Serbia’s political elite, particularly with Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, a former member of the nationalist Serbian Radical Party. Nor is it a secret that Janković has previously been courted to take over the leadership of the Serbian government. At the same time, it is also well known – though poorly concealed – that Janković is the real power behind Golob’s government. Prime Minister Robert Golob must carefully follow Janković’s interests. Meanwhile, in Serbia, the blame for the protests is already being placed on foreign influences – a very telling move, as regime propaganda in Putin’s Russia operates in exactly the same way.

Janković is not only trying to save Vučić’s skin but also…

What the Slovenian Press Agency (STA) did not report yesterday regarding Janković’s comments on the situation in Serbia, the N1 Slovenia news portal did. According to Janković, “someone has exploited the collapse of the canopy in Novi Sad for a political agenda”. The mayor of Ljubljana added that while he does not want to justify anyone, many buildings have collapsed around the world, and the key issue is always choosing the best contractor for construction work. This is quite a cynical statement, given everything that happened during the construction of the Stožice sports park and other construction projects in which Janković was personally involved. Currently, the hot topic is the C0 sewage pipeline, which threatens the entire drinking water supply for Ljubljana’s residents.

Just before Novi Sad, there was Vrbanska

Slovenia recently experienced a severe accident at a major construction site. Last autumn, a large section of the roof at the Vrbanska Sports Hall, part of the Anton Martin Slomšek Institute, collapsed. This happened about a month before the tragic accident in Novi Sad. Fortunately, there were no casualties or injuries, but had the collapse occurred just fifteen minutes later, it could have resulted in a major tragedy with multiple fatalities! The devil, however, is in the details: the hall was built in 2008 by the now-defunct construction giant SCT, led by the late Ivan Zidar. Since SCT no longer exists, legal claims for liability due to poor construction are impossible. The damage caused by the collapse in October is extensive, amounting to several million euros. Repairing the roof is not an option, as the entire structure poses a significant risk, meaning the hall will likely have to be demolished and rebuilt. This is a heavy blow for the Slomšek Institute and the Archdiocese of Maribor, which is still recovering from financial collapse. According to our sources, the Archdiocese of Maribor suffered the most because of its financial ties to old regime structures. After all, Ivan Zidar himself was part of the business circle of the main patron of Slovenia’s parallel economy and the notorious OZNA chief, Ivan Maček-Matija. The latter was also one of the most influential mentors of Milan Kučan, who later passed on his political knowledge to Zoran Janković.

This financial scandal, which deeply affected the Slovenian Catholic Church, was openly discussed years ago by Dr Ivan Štuhec in his book Slovenia Without Patria and the Zvons. Štuhec, who for many years was also the director of the Slomšek Institute, presented the book in Celje in October 2017 – seven years before the Vrbanska hall roof collapse. He described the lies and manipulations that influenced the course of events, arguing that the debts could have been managed without major difficulties had someone not pulled the emergency brake. “If the policies of the banks and their advisers toward the two Zvons had been the same as they were toward other entities that also fell into crisis, the Zvons could have been saved, and today the banks would be recovering much more than they will under the agreed settlement,” Štuhec stated at the time. He also exposed a major lie in the narrative: while it was widely claimed that the Zvons’ debts amounted to €1.5 billion, the actual debt was €450 million.

At the time, Janez Janša was seated next to Štuhec and stated during the book presentation that both the Patria affair and the Zvons case were driven by a desire to take down the Church and the opposition – an approach inherited from the former undemocratic system. However, according to him, there was another motive at play. “During that period, the media heavily covered the Patria and Zvons scandals, while in the background, tens of millions of euros were being funnelled daily from NLB to Iranian agents who were purchasing materials for chemical weapons and atomic bombs – amounting to a total of one billion euros,” he warned.

Politically tainted construction deals

We cite this financial collapse of the Archdiocese of Maribor as an example of what happens when trust is placed in the old-regime economic elites. The Vrbanska accident is largely the result of such politically arranged deals, in which SCT thrived – until it, like many other construction and real estate magnates, eventually collapsed. It is only a matter of time before another similar disaster occurs elsewhere in the country, perhaps with even worse consequences, as there are likely many more poorly built structures. (For instance, in 1995, the collapse of the Kolizej building in central Ljubljana claimed three lives.) When that happens, Janković will no longer be able to dismiss it as a “political agenda”. Instead, Pandora’s box of political accountability will likely be opened once again.

Janković needs to be read between the lines

It is increasingly evident that Janković’s current task is to pre-emptively prevent mass protests in Slovenia. He has assessed that due to Golob’s reckless policies – recall that yesterday, we reported on Svoboda’s plan to dismantle the Chamber of Agriculture and Forestry, which has 110,000 members – the situation has become volatile. While, at first glance, Slovenians do not seem particularly inclined to protest, calls for boycotting stores and even gas stations have begun to surface. However, such populist distractions serve only to divert attention from Golob’s government’s responsibility for the crisis. Few doubt that these calls are actually orchestrated by agents working for the Slovenian (and Serbian) transitional elite

Janković’s “lecture” to Serbian citizens – telling them not to protest but to express their grievances at the ballot box – is quite revealing. First, fair and impartial election conditions must be established, which applies to Slovenia as well. Janković must be read between the lines. Given the suspicious events at a polling station in Tržič on the day his patron-installed party, Positive Slovenia, emerged – resulting in an extension of the election silence until 8 PM – Janković likely knows very well what he is talking about.

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