The Mayor of Ljubljana, Zoran Janković, who is now supposedly offering to be a candidate for the new prime minister of the left, is untouchable by the Slovenian judiciary, which wants to convince us that it is professional and fair in every way possible. Janković’s police-judicial file is extremely extensive and unique, perhaps only similar to files in countries with the toughest rulers. The answer to the question of how is it possible that he has still not been punished for anything can be found in the fact that the Janković family is protected by the deep state or the mafia. No other explanation can be given here.
We borrowed the words “the mafia protects the mafia” from last year’s statement by Žan Mahnič, the former chairman of the parliamentary inquiry commission in the Franc Kangler case. When Mahnič held a mirror up for both the judges and the prosecutors in some of their dealings, the left-wing political pole, with the help of the media, carried out a media lynching of Mahnič – but not of those he was referring to in the statement. Among them was also their favourite, Zoran Janković. Mahnič commented on this with the words: “If you step on a cat’s tail, it will cry out.”
He is allowed to do everything, as he is Janša’s opponent
Firstly, let us remind you of Janković’s statement made years ago in an interview on the Croatian national television – HRT1. When asked if he was worried that one day he would be convicted and sent to prison, Janković replied: “No way. In all my years in the field of executive power, I have been the biggest opponent of Janez Janša.”
The great manager – a fairy tale for the naive
If anyone buys into the fairy tale that Janković succeeded because he is “the best manager in the country,” they are greatly mistaken. These are fairy tales for the naive. Janković was appointed chairman of Mercator’s management board by Anton Rop, who became chairman of the management board of the Slovenian Compensation Fund in 1993, and later, the minister of finance, president of the LDS party, and the prime minister, from 2002 to 2004. Rop’s statement was coincidentally recorded by a television camera in 2002, during a conversation between Rop and Janković at an event in one of Ljubljana’s hotels. In his style, Rop told Janković: “I appointed you, politics appointed you, you were politically appointed.” The decision was made by the management board of the Slovenian Compensation Fund under Rop’s leadership, in the mid-1990s, when they discussed who would become the new member of Mercator’s management board. They appointed Zoran Janković, who was the owner of the private company Electa at the time. It was this membership that then paved the path to the top of Mercator’s management board for Janković.
He was in a tight spot and does not know how to count
During the term of the first Janez Janša government (2004 to 2008), Janković was in a tight spot, due to the revelations about Mercator’s operations (at home and abroad). He was forced to say goodbye to Mercator, and a few months later he ran for mayor of the city of Ljubljana. His patron Milan Kučan, who is also the leader in Forum 21, played a major role in this. However, the mayorship was not enough for Janković and the deep state behind him. He soon founded the political party Positive Slovenia (Pozitivna Slovenija – PS), and in 2011, won the most votes in the early elections to the National Assembly. However, he was not able to form the government. Turns out he cannot count. At the beginning of January 2011, he only received 42 votes in the National Assembly (46 were needed). By the way, his candidate for the position of Speaker of the National Assembly was Maša Kociper (now an MP in the SAB party). Despite the high support of the deep state and also the then-President of the Republic Danilo Türk, Janković failed to become a prime minister. He was forced to withdraw from state politics, but at the time, he explained to the newspaper Večer, that his involvement in national politics had not ended, but was just beginning. He also announced that in four years he would once again win the elections with the Pozitivna Slovenija party, with an even bigger advantage. That did not happen, of course.
Alenka Bratušek’s confession
Alenka Bratušek, who was very thirsty for power, quickly took Janković’s place. She was still a member of the Pozitivna Slovenija party at the time, as well as Janković’s close associate, but soon after, she established her own party. She later admitted in a testimony at one of the hearings of the parliamentary commissions of inquiry, that Janković (during her time as prime minister) repeatedly suggested that she stop all police proceedings against him.
Even when entering state politics, Janković did not hide the fact that his only programme was “the fight against Janša.” We should also mention that he played a big role in the formation of the so-called trio in 2008: SD under the leadership of Borut Pahor, LDS under the leadership of Katarina Kresal, and Zares under the leadership of Gregor Golobič. Even then, he urged people to vote for anyone from the left-ring trio. He, therefore, embodied the motto “against Janez Janša,” which then continued and is still alive today.
Debt write-offs for the Janković family: the SKB bank
The politically appointed self-proclaimed manager already had major financial and business problems as early as when he still owned Electa. Janković’s first millions of debt were written off by the SKB bank in the 1990s. At that time, it was owned by the state and was led by Cvetka Selšek. The Slovenian media did not report much on this write-off, which amounted to around 8 million marks (approximately 4 million euros). Radovan Cerjak, a lawyer from Ljubljana, who reminded everyone of this fact last year, wrote that rumours were circulating in Ljubljana, that this was actually a payment for the services rendered by Zoran Janković to the nomenclature. SKB bank wrote Electa’s loans, but neither Janković nor SKB publicly explained the write-offs. Janković tried to excuse the write-off by referring to the simplified compulsory settlement procedure, which was supposed to include around 200 companies at the time, but Electa was the only one to receive such a generous write-off of the debt, which originated from borrowings.
Debt write-off of 29 million euros
Last year, the public was shocked by the news that the District Court in Ljubljana, led by the former criminal investigator Marjan Pogačnik, had written off a record 29 million euros of debt of the Janković family. Once again, they confirmed a simplified compulsory settlement for Janković’s companies from the Electa circle (specifically Electa holding), according to which, as much as 95 percent of all debts were written off. Cerjak wrote that it was a completely immoral write-off, for which it is very obvious that it was a circumvention of the law. At the same time, members of the Janković family presented themselves to the public as victims, despite their rich way of life, which we have already reported on several times.
Write-off of 8 million euros of tax debt
This year, however, the public was once again shocked to learn that another 8 million euros of debt had been written off for the Jankovič family. According to the decision of the Financial Administration of the Republic of Slovenia (hereinafter referred to as FURS), the debt originated from 2012. The debt was originally 4.9 million euros of value-added tax, and the default interest added up to 8 million euros. The tax liability was ordered by Furs in 2012, and Electa, now run by Damijan Janković, appealed. The court proceedings lasted for eight years, and in the end, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia returned the case to the first instance court for retrial. And lo and behold, FURS resigned from continuing the proceedings. With this, Electa, which was the largest tax debtor in the country for many years, was removed from the list of largest debtors. FURS did not explain why they made the decision to stop the proceedings, as that is supposedly confidential.
The sequence of events indicates that this happened at a time when FURS was led by Peter Jenko, a director, appointed to the position by the government, led by Marjan Šarec. The latter also belongs to Janković’s circle, he was a member of the Pozitivna Slovenija party and their candidate for mayor of the municipality of Kamnik. At a time when he was leading the government, Šarec was proven to be very subservient to Janković and the deep state, which firmly stood behind them both.
Well, Jenko was prematurely dismissed from the position of director of FURS, on August 31st of this year, by the government of Janez Janša, but no one explained the reasons for the dismissal. In the major media outlets, which sympathise with the deep state, however, a pogrom was launched when Jenko was dismissed. Even Jenull’s Friday cyclers were sent in front of the FURS building. The Janković family is still painting itself to be the victim, in this case of the debt write-off as well, and certain media outlets are selling this story to us as if it is dry gold.
Let’s add the numerous criminal proceedings in courts, where Janković is never convicted, and the story is complete.
Zoran Janković statements:
“When I called on the people before the 2008 elections, to vote for anyone from the left three, I was serious. So, against (Janez) Janša.” (The struggle between the transitional left and the deep state continues today.)
“I will do everything to prevent Janša from winning the election.” (April 2018). He was very wrong in doing so, and the people saw right through him. In 2018, Janez Janša and his SDS party won by a landslide (he received as many votes as LMŠ and SD, who took second and third place in the elections, combined!)
“No way. In all my years in the field of executive power, I have been the biggest opponent of Janez Janša.” (This was Janković’s answer to a question on the Croatian national television HRT1 when the host asked him if he was worried that one day he would be convicted and sent to prison.)
Rop: “I appointed you!”
A decade ago, the then-Minister, who later also became the Prime Minister, Tone Rop, was fed up with Zoran Janković pretending that he has nothing to do with politics: “I appointed you, politics appointed you, you were politically appointed.” That is what Rop said to Zoran Janković at one of the events in Ljubljana, and a television camera happened to record it.
Vida Kocjan