At Thursday’s meeting, the government already dismissed the Acting Director-General of the Police, Boštjan Lindav, and appointed Senad Jušić to the post. Minister of the Interior Boštjan Poklukar also introduced some of the other senior members of his team. It seems that people at the ministry and in the police are very afraid of the investigations into the Gen-I energy company, where Prime Minister Robert Golob was the President of the Management Board for years, and their rushing to replace people can also be explained by the fact that a recent episode of the show Tarča (Target) focused on Golob’s dealings in the Balkans.
When it became known that Boštjan Poklukar, former Minister of the Interior from the Šarec government, was Golob’s candidate to succeed Tatjana Bobnar, many people started to point out that Prime Minister Robert Golob had apparently found in him a more suitable candidate, who would be more obedient than his predecessor, who had critically pointed to unauthorised political pressures on the work of the police. Golob clearly wanted a politician, not an expert, in the position of Interior Minister.
And as far as Poklukar is concerned, we have already written that he is a representative from the close circle of Damir Črnčec, former director of the Slovene Intelligence and Security Agency, and current State Secretary at the Ministry of Defence. Since the coalition partners were also aware that Črnčec would gain influence with Poklukar’s appointment, it is not surprising that they resisted the appointment of the proposed candidate. But because power is more important than principles, Poklukar easily gathered enough votes to be appointed as Minister. But there seems to be a fear of the Gen-I investigations. Last December, the police confirmed that they were conducting a pre-trial procedure related to a suspected offence of abuse of position or trust in economic activity.
Who is Senad Jušić?
Poklukar said he chose Jušić because he wanted a career police officer on his team who came from the field. Jušić has been with the police since 1991 and has “worked his way through almost the entire police force”.
The new Director-General of the Police, Senad Jušić, was employed in the Criminal Investigation Department in Koper years ago but had to leave because he was “suspicious”. This allegedly included giving out information and consorting with criminals. Instead of being criminally charged, he joined the border police in Škofije. In the meantime, he graduated and became the assistant commander in Koper. Wherever he went, all sorts of conflicts arose. Then he came back to the criminal police sector, where he was the assistant to Dean Jurič. He then testified falsely in court – allegedly because he wanted to get a certain criminal investigator out of the police in any way possible – and was again acquitted and, after a conflict with the criminal investigators, transferred to Ljubljana. He was even shortlisted for the post of police attaché in Rome.
Acting Secretary-General of the Ministry of the Interior, Erik Pagon, who had already been in this position for a year during Poklukar’s first mandate, is now Deputy Director-General of the Protection and Rescue Administration. Pagon will succeed Gregor Novak, who was dismissed by the government on Thursday.
The government also appointed several acting directors-general of directorates in the ministry, following Poklukar’s proposal. Matej Torkar, who headed the European Affairs and International Cooperation Service during Poklukar’s first term at the ministry, was appointed Acting Director-General of the Migration Directorate.
Urška Židan, who has already held the post before, will take over as acting head of the Directorate for Administrative Internal Affairs, while Gregor Hudrič, who is currently working in the Directorate for Police and Other Security Tasks, will take over as acting head of the said department.
Prior to the appointment of the new acting directors, the government dismissed their predecessors, Nataša Potočnik, Slavko Koroš and Aleš Jerman.
All the newly appointed members of Poklukar’s team will take up their duties on Friday.
Sara Kovač
