By: C. R., Gal Kovač /Nova24tv
The President of the National Assembly attended the Viennese New Year’s concert a few days ago. She sat in the box of honour at the invitation of the Austrian President of the National Assembly, Wolfgang Sobotka. In connection with the prestigious concert, there were initially criticisms, because it was on New Year’s Day that the media published her comment on the capitalist thinking of the well-known Slovenian entrepreneur Joc Pečečnik. In connection with the concert, new speculations appeared, namely – how did Klakočar Zupančič travel to Vienna in the first place? She has now admitted herself that she flew there at taxpayer expense, in the comfortable seats of a government falcon plane. Journalist Bojan Požar warns that Urška Klakočar Zupančič is simply lying about the “state visit” and the 4-hour long “bilateral meeting”.
The fact that the speculations are true is also confirmed by official data from the flight tracker. The flight tracker clearly shows that the government’s falcon plane took off on January 1st of this year shortly after 9 a.m. It landed in Vienna about 40 minutes later. The return flight followed at 5 p.m., landing half an hour later at Jože Pučnik’s home airport.
The flight of the President of the National Assembly to Vienna is interesting for taxpayers for several reasons. We live in a time of value signalling, in which politicians and entertainers (mainly on the left) of the political field do their best to convince us of the power of personal contribution to “climate justice”, as well as the social responsibility of employers. If the guesses are confirmed, our flamboyant President of the National Assembly will also join the five-member group of individuals who talk about climate change on private planes with an enormous carbon footprint and not – like one of the everyman – on public transport.
Especially after her recent media appearance and her thoughts on the excessive and less excessive capitalism of entrepreneur Joc Pečečnik, it is extremely interesting that the President of the National Assembly did not find the use of the government plane as a symbol of the “capitalist caste” to be “excessively capitalist”.
Klakočar Zupančič about her trip to Vienna: There is no sensation here, everything was legal
The President of the National Assembly Urška Klakočar Zupančič responded to some accusations that she flew to Vienna with the government falcon. It was a state visit, and she was invited to the bilateral meeting by the speaker of the Austrian parliament, Wolfgang Sobotka. She attended a New Year’s concert there. “There is no sensation here. Everything was legal,” she said.
“As announced by the National Assembly, on January 1st I attended a bilateral meeting with the President of the Austrian Parliament. The official invitation came through established diplomatic channels, and the culture of Austrian protocol is to invite to a cultural event during a visit,” explained Klakočar Zupančič, adding that Sobotka invited her to the New Year’s concert of the Vienna Philharmonic.
After the concert, a four-hour bilateral meeting followed, during which they discussed many topics. According to her, they discussed the situation of the Slovenian minority in Austrian Carinthia, the non-implementation of the Austrian state treaty or bilingualism in kindergartens, schools, and courts, as well as the situation of the German-speaking minority in Slovenia and the problem of anti-Semitism in Austria. “The meeting was extremely successful. We have established relations that did not exist in previous mandates,” assessed the President of the National Assembly.
She confirmed that she flew to Vienna on the government’s falcon plane, as it was not a concert visit, but a bilateral visit. “Everything was legal. The trip was made with the state plane falcon, as many times before, and this is absolutely no different from the way my predecessors and members of the government travelled,” she emphasised, recalling that during the previous government, the falcon even flew empty to Milan, from where it transported one of the ministers.
She also said that traveling by car would be organisationally more demanding, as it would involve more escorts or of cars and a bigger security measure.
“Falcon can be used by the entire state leadership, including ministers. Thus, the flight to Vienna belongs to the quota of flights for state visits, which belongs to the National Assembly. There is no sensation here. What is sensational is that relations between Slovenia and Austria at the parliamentary level are better than ever before,” Klakočar Zupančič pointed out, adding that Sobotka invited her to the ceremonial opening of the renovated building of the Austrian parliament, which will take place on January 12th.
Bojan Požar notes: UKZ is simply lying!
At the same time, it is necessary to draw attention to the clear facts that journalist Bojan Požar was the first to write down on Twitter, namely that Urška Klakočar Zupančič is simply lying about the “civil visit” and the 4-hour long “bilateral meeting”. Why?