Since it is well known that the elites have managed to win and are still fighting for the most elite locations by the water, or at least with a view of the water, most people were not surprised to see a photo published by Janja Sajovic – wife of the leader of the Freedom Movement party (Gibanje Svoboda) parliamentary group, Borut Sajovic, of their house which is located directly by the water. “The home of a defender of the preservation of natural, untouched riverbanks,” one Twitter user was critical of the situation, while we also saw other comments, such as “This is a bit too close to the water…”, “He got a building permit here????!!!! And this escarpment is an environmental crime!!!”, “Barbarism”.
In 2021, the amendment to the Water Act, which strengthened the constitutionally guaranteed right to drinking water, caused quite a stir among the ranks of the so-called Constitutional Arch Coalition – the left-wing parties of the then-opposition, which have since become part of the current government. The left-wing non-governmental organisation, the 8th of March Institute (Inštitut 8. marec), was particularly active in the referendum campaign, because they were supposedly concerned about drinking water. The fact that this was nothing but deception was further demonstrated in the case of the devastating floods, because the amendment, which was rejected on the grounds of false propaganda, guaranteed greater flood safety and, on top of that, tightened up the possibility of encroachments on coastal land and stipulated that encroachments on coastal land were no longer to be decided politically, but professionally. The amendment also made it impossible to build industrial facilities on riparian land.
A Twitter user pointed out: “This house belongs to the Freedom Movement MP Sajovic. Whether or not he has all the papers for it is his thing. However, there is no doubt in my mind that the chosen few will continue to build such palaces on the #PremiumLocations such as this one, or on viewpoints where it is now impossible to build, if Golob’s fantasies of illegal construction are realised,” he said, referring to the location of the house which is supposedly located in the Dovžan Gorge Nature Park, and Golob’s recent announcement that in the construction of prefabricated houses, for those most affected by the floods and left homeless, they will simply skip the law.
As the 8th of March Institute is supposed to be fighting for clean water, one Twitter user asked if the said Institute would also express concern about the location of the house in question. Given their opposition to the aforementioned amendment to the law, which tightened the possibility of encroaching on coastal land, this is probably not to be expected.
But the family of the leader of the Freedom Movement parliamentary group is far from being the only one that seems to have come up with an elite location to build a house. Namely, in the most beautiful part of Strunjan, for example, one can find the villa of the former Liberal Democracy of Slovenia (Liberalna demokracija Slovenije – LDS) MP Tone Anderlič, of which he became a third owner under favourable conditions several years ago. In the old town centre of Piran, you can see the renovated and spacious house of the former Minister of Health, Borut Miklavčič. Andreja Rihter, former Minister of Culture in the governments of Janez Drnovšek and Tone Rop, a prominent member of the Social Democrats (Socialni demokrati -SD), built her house in the village of Malija above Izola. Borut Šuklje, former ambassador to Belgrade and minister in the Drnovšek governments, also lived in the vicinity. Gregor Golobič has an estate on the hillside of Vinjol, in the hinterland of Portorož. Janez Škrabec, owner of the engineering firm Riko, owns a villa, also known as Beli dvor, just above Lake Bled. And the list goes on…
Sara Kovač
