Slovenian National Assembly Speaker Urška Klakočar Zupančič is facing backlash for using a government jet to fly from Ljubljana to Vienna for the Vienna Philharmonic New Year’s Eve concert, a trip that typically takes roughly four hours by car.
The flight, which one media outlet calculated generated between five and six tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions versus less than 100 kilograms for a car trip on the 390-kilometre route, came just weeks after her party boss, Prime Minister Robert Golob, suggested Slovenians should eat less meat to reduce their carbon footprint.
The backlash on social media and in right-wing media outlets was swift, but Klakočar Zupančič dismissed the uproar as a storm in a teacup. “No one can travel without a carbon footprint any longer … Unless we all decide to travel by carriage, and even then you will have a minimal carbon footprint,” she said.
Klakočar Zupančič had been invited to Vienna by her counterpart Wolfgang Sobotka and she said they held a four-hour bilateral meeting after the concert that broached a number of issues important to both countries.
“The meeting was a great success. We have established relations that did not exist in previous terms,” said Klakočar Zupančič. “There is no sensation here, what is sensational is that parliamentary relations between the two countries are at their highest level so far,” she added.
(Sebastijan R. Maček | sta.si)
Source: euractiv.com
