Interior Minister Tatjana Bobnar tendered her resignation on Wednesday following a row with Prime Minister Robert Golob in which she implied political interference in the police force.
According to multiple media reports, tensions between the prime minister and the interior minister have been running high for a while. But the row went public after the minister failed with her proposal to name acting Police Commissioner Boštjan Lindav for a full term.
Bobnar said that politics should “stop outside the police doors,” a reference to reports that Golob and his team are unhappy because people linked to the previous government retained key positions in the force.
Unofficial sources suggested Bobnar’s comment on political interference was a step too far for Golob.
As tensions bubbled up in public, Golob urged the police commissioner to report on any political pressure. On receiving the report, Golob’s office said the prime minister would accept Bobnar’s resignation due to a loss of trust, making it the first exit from the government since the Golob cabinet took office this summer
It added that the report did not corroborate the allegation of political interference and called on the police to make the report public as soon as possible. But Bobnar retorted by announcing that she would take her allegations of political pressure to the prosecution.
She also said the decision not to endorse her proposal to appoint Lindav for a full term was “unprecedented” and an “obstacle to efficient development” of the police system.
She understands her being denied the right to pick her team herself as a form of political pressure.
Bobnar had served as Slovenia’s first woman head of the police force before she was replaced by the Janez Janša government in March 2020 and moved to a back office job. She was picked for the ministerial job by the prime minister.
(Ela Petrovčič | sta.si)
Source: euractiv.com
