On Thursday, members of the National Assembly discussed a bill on the reimbursement of fines for breaches of ordinances issued during the Covid-19 epidemic. The coalition took a position on the proposal, but at the same time, they made statements which, as the Speaker of the National Assembly, Urška Klakočar Zupančič, also said herself during the session, were downright stupid. In addition to admitting that she had breached the rules of passage from one municipality to another, she also admitted that, when riding a horse, it is the horse that is leading her – and not the other way around. “A horse does not know where one municipality ends, and another begins,” she said.
During the discussion, Urška Klakočar Zupančič also spoke about the restriction of movement between municipalities, which was in place for several months during the Covid-19 epidemic – just like in many other countries. “You know, I wondered what would happen if I went to another municipality with my horse. A horse does not know where one municipality ends and another begins. So I was, well, going from one municipality to another,” she said. Apparently, the Speaker of the National Assembly from the ranks of the Freedom Movement party (Gibanje Svoboda) is led by the horse when she rides it, as opposed to her leading it. Given her statement in the National Assembly, one could easily believe the latter.
It is also worth pointing out that the first person to draw attention to herself with ridiculous statements related to criticism of the anti-corona legislative measures was MP Maša Kociper. In an attempt to make the measures, which were actually implemented in many European countries – some even more rigorously – seem as stupid as possible, she stated that the smallest Slovenian municipality has only seven square metres. So, in her view, an entire municipality is the size of a small room.
Are Trnovo and Murgle municipalities?
When the MPs and ministers returned to the topic of movement from municipality to municipality during the epidemic, Minister of Justice Dominika Švarc Pipan said that, apparently, she had to look at a map and figure out whether Murgle and Trnovo are municipalities. “The road where I live, which is the border between Trnovo and Murgle, I had to look at a map to check if these two are still the same municipality. It is not normal to deal with such trivial things during an epidemic.” She did later claim that this was sarcasm, but let us remember that the Minister had already drawn attention to herself with her poor knowledge on the quiz “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” (“Kdo hoče biti milijonar”), when she did not know which river runs through Kočevje. She also did not know in which neighbouring country the largest number of Slovenians live. In the end, she barely managed to get to 300 euros, which she donated to humanitarian causes, as the episode of the show in question was of a humanitarian nature.
In addition to her poor general knowledge, the Minister, who holds a PhD in political sciences, also has problems with culture and ethics, as she refused to shake hands with Janez Janša when she met him last year. She did, however, embrace the Mayor of Ljubljana Zoran Janković recently, who is burdened with allegations of demanding sexual favours from a pharmacist who needed a job. She received less than 800 votes in the elections but went on to become Minister of Justice of the Republic of Slovenia anyway.
Sara Kovač
