At Thursday’s meeting, the government adopted a decision on the dismissal and subsequent appointment of two new government representatives in the Council of the Slovenian National Theatre – SNT Drama Ljubljana. The new members are Eva Boštjančič and Urška Pavlovič, who will replace the current members Ingrid Kovšca Pušenjak and Helena Marija Zupan.
The latter would not be unusual if Eva Boštjančič were not the wife of the current Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister Klemen Boštjančič. He is also soon to become Vice-President of the largest coalition party, the Freedom Movement (Gibanje Svoboda).
Eva Boštjančič has no experience in theatre or acting and has never worked in this field. In fact, her CV states that she is employed at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ljubljana, where she is head of the psychology department.
The Ministry of Finance responded to the allegations of yet another case of nepotism by the Freedom Movement party by saying that the Minister of Finance recused himself from the decision-making process when the government was confirming his wife as its representative in the Council of the Slovenian National Theatre Drama.
In last night’s episode of the show Tarča (Target) on Television Slovenija, the guests also noted that the excuses that the Deputy Prime Minister and Eva Boštjančič’s husband had recused himself from the decision-making process at the government meeting were not convincing and that the government should always strive to maintain the appearance of no conflict of interests.
“Politics has been reduced to legal formalisms. Let’s make an appointment process that corresponds to a legal formality. The Minister has recused himself, but his wife will sit on the council anyway. The problem is that the wife should not sit there at all. While he is in office, none of his relatives should have any such benefits. There is no room to privatise the position and extend it to all possible family members – instead, you have to work for the public good,” Igor Lukšič said on the show.
Moja Dolenjska
