By: Vida Kocjan
The example of the demolished Goričar villa in Slovenske Konjice shows that the Social Democrats (SD) or their predecessors not only privatised the real estate of their predecessor, the League of Communists of Slovenia (ZKS), but also earned with those in social ownership. Thus, in mid-April 2018, in the time before the KUL fever, they wrote on the web portal 24ur.com.
They revealed that the Goričar villa was bought by the Konjice municipality in April 1976 from the owners for 1.15 million dinars (today’s 271,180.81 euros). It is evident from the contract that the municipality bought the villa “for the needs of socio-political organisations”.
The building became social property and the holder of the right of use became the municipality. About two years later, in November 1978, the Konjice Executive Council transferred the building free of charge to the Municipal Conference of ZKS Slovenske Konjice, as evidenced by an extract from the Land Register.
The real estate remained social property, and the right holder became Konjice ZKS.
In September 1990, the municipality then demanded the same conditions for the use of the building for all political parties from the ZKS – Party of Democratic Renewal (SDP). ZKS – SDP replied that they had set up a commission to determine the actual ownership of real estate. Open issues will be resolved by an inter-party agreement or law, and until then a moratorium on the transfer of real estate ownership will apply. They wrote this only a few days after a similar agreement was reached at the headquarters in Ljubljana. And added that “there is no need to deal with issues with nervousness and bad will”, and the development “enables the peaceful resolution of all outstanding issues.”
Three years later, in 1993, the party (then renamed only SDP) sold the property to Facig, owned by Franc Gajšek.
At the time of the sale, the SDP claimed to be the actual owner and possessor and the holder of the right to use the real estate, although it was never entered in the land register. It was sold to Gajšek for 195,000 German marks, today’s 189,576.69 euros. But the building remained social property, Facig registered only as the new holder of the right of use.
The municipality then demanded the cancellation of the sale between SDP and Gajšek. A series of lawsuits followed. The Celje court then made a final decision in 2005 that the SDP became the owner in 1993. Some ownership manoeuvres followed, all in companies owned by Franc Gajšek, who in the meantime became one of the richest Slovenes.
The bottom line is that the purchase price of almost 190,000 euros for a building that was never owned by the SDP party (then ZLSD and now SD) landed on the party’s account.
There were many similar real estate relationships in Slovenia. Therefore, it seems smart to investigate other cases as well.