“What they did not write and what the Ministry did not say is that the exhibition was deliberately sabotaged by a Slovenian woman, who got her job in Brussels because of the LMŠ party, Sonja Kralj, who purposely gave them the wrong information. In order to harm the government, she intentionally harmed Slovenia and then talked to the media about it,” political analyst Tomaž Štih commented on the newly-constructed affair of the transitional subversives.
The government is preparing for the upcoming Presidency of the Council of the European Union. Due to ideological hostility, part of the left-wing opposition is opposing it. They are greatly assisted by the NGOs, trade unions and the mainstream media outlets, with the additional support of the transitional network. The political fight is also being fought in the field of culture. Thus, the mainstream media widely reported on the decision of the Ministry of Culture to cancel the exhibition of selected Slovenian artists at the European Parliament. However, it later turned out that, as per usual, all of this happened with the “support” of the left in Brussels.
As we have learned, Sonja Kralj holds the position of Attaché for Culture and Audiovisual Affairs at the Permanent Representation of the Republic of Slovenia to the EU. According to Tomaž Štih, a member of the government council for the adoption of the anti-corona measures, it was Kralj who deliberately sabotaged the exhibition and gave the Slovenian public the wrong information. We are not surprised by this at all, as the same scenario happened in the non-paper affair, in which, among others, another member of the transition network, the long-time diplomat Marko Markovec, also participated.
With Kralj’s help, her ex-husband took the position of director of the Ljubljana Opera House
Sonja Kralj is not an unknown name on the Slovenian scene. She is considered a long-time influential official in the field of culture in Slovenia. She is also the ex-wife of the former President of the National Council Mitja Bervar, who we have previously already written about – namely, that he got to the position of director of the Slovenian National Opera and Ballet Theatre of Ljubljana in an extremely unusual way and with insufficient competencies. With political staffing, they also overcame this hurdle. Majda Širca, a former Minister of Culture and a member of the LDS and Zares parties, who is now an employee of RTV Slovenia, is responsible for the fact that they managed to recruit Bervar to the position of director of the cultural institution. At the end of 2009, Bervar took over the position of director of the Slovenian National Opera and Ballet Theatre of Ljubljana in very unusual circumstances. Upon his candidacy, the conditions of the tender were changed so that the MP of the Zares party, the then-Minister of Culture Majda Širca, could even appoint him. It is interesting that his partner at the time, Sonja Kralj Bervar, held a high official position at the Ministry back then, and at the same time, she was even the vice-president of the failed LDS party which explains why the Ministry had no doubts about Bervar’s abilities.
Namely, just a few months before his appointment to the position of director, Bervar defended his diploma thesis entitled Model of Crisis Management in Associations at the Faculty of Management in Koper, which the Ministry considered to be sufficient experience in crisis management. His previous roles were completely incomparable to the position of director of the Slovenian National Opera and Ballet Theatre of Ljubljana; Bervar was the general secretary of the Association of Slovenian Composers and the Slovenian Music Information Centre, and before that, he was also the President of the Ljubljana Madrigalists Mixed Choir.
A financial collapse followed
However, the insufficient experience turned Bervar’s tenure into a failure. Regardless of the fact that they knew about the irregularities, the then-Pahor government calmly ignored everything. Bervar was also calm, as his affairs were now covered by his ex-wife at the Ministry of Culture.
We found an official notification from the management team of the Opera and Ballet Theatre from 2017 online about the successful rehabilitation programme, which states that they successfully completed a difficult financial situation worth more than one million euros due to outstanding liabilities to suppliers before the required deadline. It also states that by the end of 2012, outstanding liabilities in the amount of 1,472,639 euros had been accumulated.
So, we should not be surprised that panic started in part of the transition network. With each passing day, more and more skeletons are falling out of the closets of all of the ministries. It is particularly unfortunate that, due to the ideological hostility, the left-wing Slovenian officials in Brussels are deliberately damaging Slovenia’s reputation in the international community. Sonja Kralj is just one of them. We will soon uncover a few more undercuts that are deliberately ruining the reputation and work of the current government.
Luka Perš
