Logar addresses individual mayors and aggressively builds party infrastructure

After MPs Anže Logar, Eva Irgl, and Dejan Kaloh, SDS councilor in Ljubljana Igor Horvat publicly announced his decision to leave the party yesterday. "After 17 years, I have decided to leave SDS and the Ljubljana council club after thorough consideration, as I realized it was time for a new path," he wrote.

This is the fourth notable departure from the party this month. The Ljubljana SDS, after Anže Logar stepped down from this position last January due to poor local election results, is led by the party's vice-president and former interior minister Aleš Hojs. To his colleague who decided to leave, he wrote indignantly that he believes the decision to leave the SDS party was not made overnight.

"Therefore, your recent actions in terms of today's departure surprise me greatly. Just over a week ago, you called me and sought support – which you also received – for your candidacy in the board of the Lekarne Ljubljana institute. Because I simply do not believe that a week ago you did not know how you would soon decide regarding your membership in our party, when I think about our conversation today, your action at that time is downright reprehensible. It seems it was only your desire to secure a well-paid position in a public institution with the help of our party at the last moment. I am left speechless," Hojs wrote.

He called on Horvat – following the example of calls for the three MPs to return their mandates – to also resign as a city councilor. "You were elected on the SDS list, and those who voted for the list recognized the program and values in our program, which they gave their vote to, and not as an independent councilor. After reviewing the results of preferential votes, I find that you did not receive enough of them to be directly placed in the city council. It would be fair and correct to leave the seat to the next on the list," he added. More departures from SDS are expected. Horvat assessed that Slovenia needs a political center that will transcend ideological oppositions and focus on important issues.

Talks on all sides

Anže Logar is meanwhile aggressively building the infrastructure of his new party, which, according to some information, he is expected to establish as early as November. Officially, the deadline for establishment, according to him, is by the end of the year, but it is not realistic to expect that he will wait until the pre-holiday period. Political interlocutors note that Logar is trying to gain political companions on all sides, and he is also talking to mayors. According to unofficial information, he has also addressed Alan Bukovnik, the mayor of Radlje ob Dravi, who left SD in 2016. Bukovnik and Logar did not respond to our requests for comment yesterday.

"The party leadership checked speculations that I might be considering joining Logar's party, which, in their opinion, could harm me and SD," says Jani Prednik, the head of the party's parliamentary group, about whom there is also speculation whether he will leave SD. "I am staying in the party, I am not going anywhere," Prednik reassures.

SDS interlocutors meanwhile assess that Logar's expectations that several hundred individuals will leave the party with him will not be realized and that he will have to work hard to cross the parliamentary threshold with his independent political story. He will also have to find appropriate funding for the party infrastructure he is rapidly building.

Mojca Šetinc Pasek. PHOTO: Nace Hočevar/STA