The wealthy President of the Republic of Slovenia, who likes to present herself as the President of all Slovenians, is not satisfied with her presidential salary, the media outlet 24ur reported. After recently stating that “we will have to learn to live with less,” the President is now demanding more for herself, because she believes that she is entitled to “more”. The President’s salary is 5,663.42 euros gross, or around 3,000 euros net.
After preaching a minimalist lifestyle only a few days ago, on Wednesday, Nataša Pirc Musar confirmed that her ideas do not apply to her life. The left-wing privatiser, married to a transition profiteer, believes that she should get more, while the others should just “learn to live with less”.
According to the media outlet 24ur, at the end of November, the Secretary-General of the Office of the President of the Republic, Uroš Krek, sent a letter to the Minister of Finance, Klemen Boštjančič, who was also the acting Minister of Public Administration at the time, in which he questioned the constitutionality of Article 23(2) of the Public Sector Salary System Act, which stipulates that officials – including Nataša Pirc Musar – are not entitled to any allowances other than the length-of-service allowance. The Constitutional Court has already ruled on this issue and found that there is no incompatibility with the Constitution, but the Office of the President insists that both Nataša Pirc Musar and her colleagues are at a disadvantage because of the article in question.
The Office of the President of the Republic explained that Pirc Musar and the employees there often work beyond the legal maximum time limits set by the Employment Relationships Act for the protection of workers, for which they do not receive additional pay or compensation. This is unjustified and unconstitutional, according to Krek, and puts the President and the officials in her office in an unequal position compared to other public servants.
We are talking about the wealthiest President we have ever had
But let’s face the truth here – we are talking about the wealthiest President we have ever had, who had already amassed at least half a million euros before the elections. Even back then, she had 30,000 euros cash in the bank, and about 13,000 euros in Krka shares. She also owns financial investments worth almost a quarter of a million euros, which have not yet been explained in detail. And neither has the fact why the ownership of Krka shares does not qualify as a financial investment.
Pirc Musar owns 75 percent of her family house in Radomlje, which, according to publicly available data from the Surveying and Mapping Authority, is worth 110 thousand euros. Pirc Musar is also the co-owner of two companies. She owns almost 50 percent of the Law Firm Pirc Musar & Lemut Strle, which is valued at 63 thousand euros. She also owns 14.6 percent of the company Ruska dača d.o.o., which is said to be worth 113,500 euros. And let’s not forget about all of the material assets that were not even mentioned here.
While stressing her enormous wealth, it is also worth noting that this is the same person who, after returning from the glamour of Arabia – where she attended the COP28 United Nations Climate Change Conference – came back with a lecture. A lecture for all citizens. Namely, she stressed that “in the future, we will have to start living differently, with fewer things, but better things. I am not advocating that we should go to a lower quality of life, but we should own less of certain goods.” We should also mention that her office said that three nights’ accommodation for two members of her entourage amounted to a total of around 1,875 euros, while the organiser covered the cost of the President’s stay. However, the office did not explain how much it cost to rent the government Falcon jet which Pirc Musar used to get to and from the climate conference.
Her husband is even wealthier
Not to mention the fact that the President’s husband, Aleš Musar, is one of the wealthiest men in Slovenia, who nevertheless also benefits from a monthly allowance to cover the costs of his commitments as the President’s partner, which amounts to 15 percent of the salary of the President of the Republic (971 euros gross). It should also be noted that during his wife’s election campaign, he said he would waive the allowance, but this turned out not to be true.
Musar, the well-known transition profiteer who has turned over millions in his career, also owns a property in Zgornje Gameljne called Ruska dača – The Russian Dacha, which is a cultural monument of local importance.
Several social media users have responded to the President’s request for a higher salary, with one user pointing out that a mere one week has passed between the President lecturing all Slovenians about having less in the future and her demanding higher pay for herself. Another user pointed out that Pirc Musar’s problem is not her jetting around on the private jet or believing that public representatives do not get paid enough. “Her problem is that she, at the same time, wants to lecture us on the importance of living with less. And the fact that even before she was elected, she co-created the socialist populism of ‘justice in equality’ etc. with the civil society. Hypocrisy is her biggest problem. ”
Former Minister of the Economy, Matej Lahovnik, also pointed out the discrepancy between talking about everyone having to learn to live with less one week, and then demanding a higher pay the next. “And now she wants higher pay, even though Musar gets around 850 euros a month as her partner, on top of his 5 to 10 million euros of assets. And the help that they got from the state for the Russian Dacha – namely, 195,510 euros was also not negligible.”
Another social media user wrote: “She is a lawyer. She knew very well that the salary for the President of the Republic is 3,000 euros a month. She decided to run for this office with full responsibility. Therefore, writing about a salary that is too low is just hypocritical. And in addition, as a lawyer, she was paying herself a lower salary – 2,000 euros a month. And that was enough for her at the time.”
T. B.
