“Well, I have heard the exact opposite from the voters – they want someone who does not have any ‘party baggage’ for President,” the presidential candidate Nataša Pirc Musar is trying to convince the public of how her opponent Anže Logar is not a suitable candidate for the position of President of the country because he is a member of the largest opposition party – the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS). Of course, this is pure manipulation because, from the very beginning of the presidential race, Pirc Musar has enjoyed the support of two non-parliamentary parties and former Presidents of the Republic, which includes a well-known godfather from the background, and she is now also supported by two coalition parties on top of all that. Even the notorious Mayor of Ljubljana, Zoran Janković, supports her.
In the first round of pre-election debates, lawyer Nataša Pirc Musar already claimed that she was completely independent and left to fend for herself, even though she was supported by two non-parliamentary parties – the Pirate Party of Slovenia (Piratska stranka Slovenije) and the Youth Party – European Greens (Stranka mladih Slovenije – Zeleni Evrope). And what was even more interesting is that Pirc Musar was also supported by two former Presidents of the Republic – Milan Kučan and Danilo Türk. Kučan’s support is clearly not accidental. In fact, in one of her interviews, she said that he had told her a year ago that she should consider a
presidential candidacy. This is not surprising, of course, given that Pirc Musar’s father is a friend of Kučan’s.
When asked what the call from Milan Kučan was like and whether he really called her or did she actually call him, Pirc Musar replied that she and Kučan had only met a few times in their lives. “A year ago, when we met, he said to me: Nataša, now would be a good time for you to think about running for office. But I first spoke to former President Danilo Türk. He is also one of the people who support me. I am eternally grateful to both living former Presidents,” she said. Given that Kučan is considered to be a powerful godfather from the background, many doubted from the very beginning that Pirc Musar could actually be a President of all citizens, following the example of the current President Borut Pahor. Namely, Kučan is a first-class citizen around whom the influential members of the former Forum 21 gather, and they are characterised by knowing how to turn any situation to their advantage while caring very little for ordinary citizens. And to add fuel to the fire, Pirc Musar’s husband, Aleš Musar, is considered a winner of the privatisation transition, which means that Pirc Musar is no stranger to living lavishly.
She even accepted the support of the Mayor, who is by no means a model of respecting women The fact is that since Pirc Musar’s entry into the first round of the elections, she has enjoyed the support of two government parties – the Freedom Movement party (Gibanje svoboda) and the Social Democrats (Socialni demokrati – SD). When reminded in one of the pre-election debates that she could not really claim to be independent anymore, she stated that she did not expect such support. But let’s leave aside the question of whether or not she expected such support – the fact is that it seems quite inappropriate for her to be accusing the opposition candidate of being unsuitable because of his ‘party baggage,’ while she herself also has quite a lot of it. Nor should we forget that she also has the support of Zoran Janković, a great supporter of Robert Golob. At the commemoration of the Day of Remembrance for the Dead, he allowed himself a real meltdown, slandering Logar and expressing support for Pirc Musar. Ever since Janković became Mayor, affairs have been sticking to him, and the Stožice affair is especially telling, where tragedy struck the subcontractors and workers, and thus their families, due to the non-payment of their work. The other major affair is the pharmacist affair, where a young pharmacist from Ljubljana was given a job, and in return, the Mayor demanded sexual favour from her. Many believe that Janković’s support for Pirc Musar casts a shadow on her candidacy, as she herself likes to claim that she has always been a champion of human rights. When you are supported by someone like that, it is no wonder that many find it hard to believe your promises. And we should also keep in mind that she has been accused of writing threatening letters to trade unionists.
“The question is what impact these gestures will have because she was not only the lawyer of the overheard but a lawyer of the powerful. This is not yet entirely clear,” political analyst Dr Bernard Nežmah said about Pirc Musar after Thursday’s debate on the public broadcaster Radio-Television Slovenia. Nežmah also said of Pirc Musar that she is clearly playing on the strategy of “anti-Janšaism.” “She is not facing her opponent as he is. He has acted in a statesman-like manner; he has avoided attacks. She, on the other hand, was always looking for where she could accuse him of something in terms of a link with the SDS party. The dilemma in these
elections will be very simple: can anti-Janšaism be the key to victory for the left? That is still unclear at the moment.”
The fact that Pirc Musar is a party candidate, after both Prime Minister and President of the Freedom Movement party, Golob, as well as President of the Social Democrats, Tanja Fajon, expressed their support for her, was pointed out by journalist Bojan Požar after the first round of elections. Požar also added that she was, in fact, already a party candidate before that, as she was backed by the radical Pirate Party of Slovenia and the Youth Party – European Greens. Pirc Musar claimed last week in favour of her candidacy that she has never been a member of any party and has not been involved in the daily politics “that has divided Slovenia.” But given that her most ardent supporters are Kučan, Janković, Türk and Golob, this is hard to believe, as they are far from being the model of connection. This is very clear, for example, in the case of Janković, who has taken the liberty of venting in a place that is completely inappropriate for something like that. Instead of condemning the whole thing in the strongest of terms, Pirc Musar said that it was inappropriate for him to do that at a commemoration on the Day of Remembrance for the Dead, adding that she would not have used such words herself and then went on to explain that she agreed with what he had said. And when Golob, following the example of big names of the former system, where there was no room for human rights, said that they would certainly not allow the SDS party candidate to get into the Presidential palace, Pirc Musar did not condemn his statement in the strongest possible terms, but instead said that she would not use such vocabulary, because she found it aggressive, and then made it clear that she found the statement of SDS party President Janez Janša more problematic, when he said the following: “If this is a clash of two sets of values, then, on the one hand, we will have the values of Slovenian independence and constitutionalism, and on the other hand the values of tax havens.” In Golob’s defence, Pirc Musar said on Sunday that he is still feeling the effects of the elections to the National Assembly. If this is how she can justify the intolerant statements typical of totalitarianisms, then we can defend anyone at any time! So much for how sincere of a human rights defender she is supposed to be. Since she is now supported by those whom she criticised only yesterday because of such statements, she must now quickly change her tune. It is hardly the case that she is the one who has been completely honest the whole time and that she is a non-partisan candidate. Namely, her party baggage is still heavy, whether she is willing to admit it or not.
Sara Kovač
