Aleksander Perklič is the new head of the Security and Protection Centre (CVZ). He was appointed to the post by Acting Director-General of the Police, Damjan Petrič, who took up his post last week. Perklič’s appointment raises a number of questions about his political background and possible influences, as he is closely linked to former key players of the List of Marjan Šarec (Lista Marjana Šarca – LMŠ) and current members of the Freedom Movement party (Gibanje Svoboda). It seems that one of the priorities of the current authorities is not actually to regulate the situation at the Security and Protection Centre at all, as they like to point out, but instead to consolidate political positions in key places.
Aleksander Perklič is the former commander of the Kamnik Police Station and is now taking over a key position at the head of the Security and Protection Centre (Center za varovanje in zaščito – CVZ). His wife, Tadeja Forštner Perklič, is a former State Secretary in Prime Minister Marjan Šarec‘s cabinet, where she was in charge of foreign affairs.
Tadeja Forštner Perklič served as Foreign Affairs Adviser in the Prime Minister’s Office from September 2015 to September 2018, after which she returned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Both she and the new head of the Security and Protection Centre are considered to be staff close to Interior Minister Boštjan Poklukar and National Security Adviser Damir Črnčec, who was a close associate of Marjan Šarec.
Not just security, but also surveillance?
“In doing so, Robert Golob will have everyone covered in the last year of his mandate – the President of the State Nataša Pirc Musar, the Speaker of the National Assembly Urška Klakočar Zupančič, and all other protected persons”, we learned from an insider. Therefore, there is a serious risk that the appointment of Perklič will give the Freedom Movement party full control over key security and protection structures in the year leading up to the elections to the National Assembly. The Security and Protection Centre was said to have not only protected key political figures, but also supervised them.
“What Mateja Gončin revealed is child’s play against what they will do now. And this is all going to be happening before the elections. Now they have the Security and Protection Centre (Perklič), the Special Units (Robert Radkovič), the National Bureau of Investigations – NPU (Darko Muženič) and the General Police Administration covered. The police have been taken over by the LMŠ party/Črnčec,” says our source.
Professional choice?
With strong political connections in the LMŠ and the Freedom Movement parties, and with the information we have received that Perklič is known as a confrontational personality and his professional competence is questionable, there is a concern that this is not actually a professional choice, but a consolidation of the position of the largest parliamentary party. Perklič left the police in the past to pursue his career in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but is now returning to a prominent position in the police. This return “through the big door” is seen by many as a political reward for loyalty to certain circles, rather than a result of professional achievements or managerial competence.
Sara Kovač
