“I quoted a man who has devoted his entire life to the fight for justice, against corruption, elites, first-class parasites, and especially to the fight against the deep state. He is always the victim, he is always being disabled, and someone always prevents him from turning Slovenia into the land of milk and honey… What Chuck Norris is to the United States of America, Franci Matoz is to Slovenia. We are wondering if the poor man will even be able to keep up the pace since he gets a new supervisory or managerial position practically every day,” Marjan Šarec wrote about Janez Janša and his lawyer Franci Matoz, on the LMŠ party’s website. He forgot about the fact that in June, MPs of the coalition parties and the opposition’s SNS party submitted proposals for amendments to the law on public procurement in the field of healthcare, which will bring about a reduction in the prices of medical devices and medical equipment. Ask yourself if the current Prime Minister would really support these proposals, if he was being influenced by the transitional businessmen Božo Dimnik and Andrej Marčič, both big earners in the field of medical equipment during the governments of Alenka Bratušek, Miro Cerar and Marjan Šarec. Marjan Šarec shared his weekly thoughts again on the website of his party, the List of Marjan Šarec. This time, he wrote about the golf affair, lawyer Franci Matoz, and he wrote about the personnel purge once again. Šarec highlighted one of Janez Janša’s posts, in which the current Prime Minister was critical of the actions of Šarec’s government and the fact that they stopped funding the Slovenian doctor Marko Noč in 2019. Based on one photo from 2003, Šarec built the thesis that Janez Janša and the SDS party are only fighting corruption in healthcare on paper. Corruption has cost the taxpayers at least thirty billion euros in the last thirty years.
In June, the coalition MPs and the MPs from the opposition’s SNS party submitted a proposal to amend the Public Procurement Act in the field of healthcare, which brings about a reduction in the prices of medical devices and medical equipment. One of the novelties presented in the amendment is also the introduction of a reference price, which would be formed by the office, based on data from Slovenian hospitals and hospitals from other comparable countries of the European Union. One of the advantages of changing the legislation in the field of ordering medical equipment would also be that the current unreasonable and excessive deviations in the procurement of the same materials in different hospitals would no longer be allowed.
The proposed model of equalisation of purchase prices in all Slovenian healthcare institutions operating in the public healthcare network will affect the reduction of prices of medical devices and medical equipment on the Slovenian market. However, Marjan Šarec is not taking any of this into account. Let us remind you that during the time of Šarec’s government, the then-Minister of Health, Samo Fakin, resigned. And at one of the last press conferences before Šarec himself resigned, he choked a public relations representative of Fakin’s successor, Aleš Šabeder. The current Foreign Minister, Anže Logar, also revealed how LMŠ MP Jože Lenart appointed a consultant for work at the Oncology Institute all by himself.
Šarec considers Matoz to be the Slovenian Chuck Norris Marjan Šarec is still hurt by the fact that he left empty warehouses of emergency medical equipment behind when he resigned at the beginning of the first wave of the epidemic. The former Prime Minister knew that the warehouses were empty, but instead of facing one of the worst crises of modern times, he decided to just give up instead. For him, empty warehouses do not represent the truth but ideology. We can
only wonder how many people might have died during the first wave if Šarec’s government had still been in power.
The largest government party, SDS, has replaced some of its staff in various state-owned companies and institutions in recent days. Janša’s personal lawyer Franci Matoz will take on quite a few new obligations. “What Chuck Norris is to the United States of America, Franci Matoz is to Slovenia. We are wondering if the poor man will even be able to keep up the pace since he gets a new supervisory or managerial position practically every day,” Šarec wrote in his own style.
However, Šarec has forgotten what staffing looked like during the time of his own government. Namely, it was the Kralj affair that ended the career of his long-time political companion Brane Kralj, as he wanted to arrange a job for Igor Šoltes in the Official Gazette via a phone call. In its short time in office, the Šarec government made as many as 252 staff changes. And this happened in sessions that sometimes only lasted for a few minutes. We should also remember Šarec’s closest colleague, Damir Črnčec, who employed his own people at the state-owned Telekom.
In addition to all of the typical “Šarec-esque” statements that the former Prime Minister included In his text, Marjan Šarec also has no idea what it means to seriously preside over the Council of the European Union. We cannot expect much more from a politician who was afraid to speak before the European Parliament. He simply cannot understand that the current Prime Minister is busy with matters much more urgent than coming to a hearing in cases where he is being sued.
Luka Perš
