“It has to be in the investor’s interest to come and say… look, Danijel, you fuck, do the project… here you have 50 grand upfront, and once it’s carried out, you get 100 grand. Then tell me what you need. And when the project is finished, when I sell it, you get a million. I get 15, you get a million. I’m immediately in,” can be heard on the leaked recording that appeared on the Facebook page Maske padajo #nismofejk.
In the latest series of wiretaps, former Health Minister Danijel Bešič Loredan has once again been caught – the man who at one time was “one with Prime Minister Golob”. After the previous wiretaps revealed the existence of corruption in healthcare, this latest batch shows Loredan in an open conversation about some kind of deal to divide the “spoils”.
As we can see, the former minister’s language is direct and shows no hesitation about accepting a bribe in exchange for providing a service, as he explicitly says: “I’m immediately in.” The excerpt from the leaked conversation is all the more shocking because the resigned minister was previously considered a major critic of corruption in public healthcare. In February 2023, when the Ministry of Health together with the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption announced an analysis of the functioning of the public sector in healthcare (a review of suppliers in the procurement of medical equipment, pharmaceutical products and personal care products for 26 public healthcare institutions at the secondary level from 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2022), the minister pointed out that systemic corruption in healthcare has been a problem for the last 15 years and announced a fight against it. “We ourselves also want to look into the bowels of the healthcare system, find those responsible and change the system so that in this part of spending the collected money for healthcare we will not be losing it on commissions and suppliers, but rather on optimising the healthcare system. Based on the analysis, we will address the biggest corruption risks with systemic changes,” he stated.
Because this involves a former minister whom the current prime minister once praised to the skies and who was even deputy prime minister, such a revelation casts a new dark shadow over the functioning of the current government – especially after a series of wiretaps that have shown even the biggest sceptics that we apparently do not live in a legal and democratic state.
What was Žavbi doing with Milena in the parliamentary room?
Today, another recording also surfaced of a conversation involving the former Secretary General of Svoboda, Vesna Vuković. In the conversation, which was allegedly recorded on 19 October 2023 with Peter Majerle, a prominent member of the ruling party and business director of Gibanje Svoboda, one can hear about Milena, whom they caught with Lenart Žavbi in one of the parliamentary rooms. In the conversation, she said that she believes Milena is scheming within their party and that she has also informed the prime minister about it. “She is constantly counting our young ones and pulling information out of them. And you know what happened today when I went with Robert to the government room in parliament? Žavbi was hidden in the room with Milena,” can be heard on the recording. Vuković added that Matej Grah fell into the trap of naivety. “Naive, naivety. Of course, with a purpose, not…”
At the very beginning of the conversation, Vuković explained to her interlocutor that her boss had given her certain powers, which she interpreted in her own way. “I simply, for people who never wanted to put on the blue colour, and we remember the local elections, and we remember convincing him… Martin Kovač is on the verge of a nervous breakdown, also because of this same Brežan, right… meaning, in a year and a half he hasn’t managed to push through any legislation… He hasn’t replaced a single SDS person, but now two of ours are going to fly out of the game. The only two of ours that we managed to nail in there.”
As can be seen, the former secretary general was very critical of the former Minister of Natural Resources and Spatial Planning Uroš Brežan, among other things because during the time when flood recovery was being prepared, he was allegedly excluding their people.
“Peter, look, then we’ll look a bit wider. Let’s tell this story a bit more broadly. You know that the most business will develop through Brežan’s ministry. In this recovery, right? And what is he doing? He is systematically excluding people who are ours… so that he doesn’t have anyone there who would be watching on a daily basis what he is doing,” she stated and added that in recent days, with the help of ministers, she realised “that he is really cunning, you know.” “He is not as stupid as we think,” can be heard.
She then mentioned that she would leave it to Maja Kostanjšek, for whom she had given a red light when Brežan was putting together his team. Another problem mentioned was that Vesna Humar had called her to ask if they could activate Mavrič with them. “Well, what are we going to do about this now? Meaning, we had someone in the party. We were bringing him in and now the least burdened ministry is calling me saying that Mavrič should work there. I mean, the guy is hardworking… you can’t say he isn’t.”
In October 2023, Svoboda got rid of Brežan; he was forced to resign because he suddenly no longer enjoyed the prime minister’s trust. “The Prime Minister invited me for a conversation on Monday afternoon and told me that our paths are diverging. I understand that the Prime Minister wants someone in this position who will be more compatible with his views, so I sent him my resignation letter yesterday afternoon,” Brežan explained according to Slovenske novice when leaving the ministerial post. It was suggested that the prime minister was not satisfied with the pace of the recovery. Nevertheless, that did not prevent the government from appointing him in January this year as director of the Public Institution Triglav National Park.
S. K.
