By: Tanja Brkić / Nova24tv
“I grew up on the principle that you have to jump first, and then you can say hop,” said Economy Minister Zdravko Počivalšek in the show Osebno with Valentina Plaskan on Planet TV. The Minister, who presented himself on social media as “Olimje citizen, father, Minister of Economy and President of the Party Konkretno by function and businessman by heart, educated in agronomy, farmer by hobby,” also spoke about current issues before the elections. The Minister is an agronomist by education and has managerial experience in the field of tourism and agriculture, in which he also grew up.
This time, the guest of the Sunday show Osebno with Valentina Plaskan was the Minister of Economy Zdravko Počivalšek, whose mother was a teacher from Zasavje and whose father was a native of Kozjansko. After his rich economic career, he entered the political arena in 2014, making a major turnaround. In September 2019, he succeeded Miro Cerar at the helm of the Modern Centre Party (SMC). After the fall of Šarec’s government, the party entered the government of Janez Janša, in which Počivalšek remained Minister of Economy. Last year, the SMC party changed its name to Konkretno, and in the April parliamentary elections it will run as part of the Povežimo Slovenijo movement.
He cannot imagine life without a farm
Počivalšek defends common sense and differs from his ministerial colleagues in that he drives to work in Ljubljana every day from Podčetrtek, where he has a farm. Years ago, he said he could not imagine life without his heifers, horses, and a tractor. “Of course, I am still a farmer, I just had to organise my work differently. Since I am on the road a lot, I am on the tractor a little. This one now works maybe 200 hours, and 1000 hours a year is the lower limit of the tractor’s profitability. I only have two horses and ten heifers left, and they are basically grazing on their own,” is the sentence he claims today, and he also said at the beginning of his political career.
If it is a normal state that you do not cooperate with half the country, then I do not want to be in a normal state
He is convinced that he will play a central role in the upcoming elections, which are crucial on the right and on the left. As the president of the party Konkretno, which joined the Povežimo Slovenijo movement, he is of the opinion that the only integration and coordination of different opinions and dialogue to resolve diversity is the answer to Slovenia’s successful continuation. He reiterates the importance of cooperating with all and believes that exclusion is out of the question: “If it is normal that you do not cooperate with half of the country, with half of the MPs in the National Assembly, then I do not want to return to such a “normal” state. I expect that in the future we will only get to talk and cooperate,” he said.
Počivalšek emphasised that living conditions throughout Slovenia must be made equal – such that young people will live here, and he is convinced that other systems will work alongside the economy.
The only credible research is elections
With all the polls differing from each other, and the numbers are really jumping unpredictably, he does not worry too much, as he is a man of action and believes that bragging about winning, as some parties have done, is unnecessary and pointless. “I grew up on the principle that you have to jump first and then you can say hop. As part of Povežimo Slovenijo movement, we are preparing 88 credible candidates who will achieve results in the elections. I only believe in one opinion poll, and that is elections.”
With all foreign investment, we have grown so far
With the entire saga of Slovenian tourist jewels, which is still going on, and after it was unofficially leaked to the public that the investment fund of one of the richest Hungarians intends to buy 43% stake in Sava JSC from the York fund, the opposition once again found a reason to accuse the government of demonising Hungarian capital and the like, which Počivalšel finds absurd: “The fact is that we have grown with foreign direct investment. It is unacceptable to demonise one capital, to talk about Hungarian salami. That is not serious. Our economy is a system that allows this country to function.”