Sunday

2nd Apr 2023

Slovenia's finance minister resigns after police raid

  • Dusan Mramor (r) condemned the police raid on Slovenia's central bank last week (Photo: Council of the EU)

Slovenia's finance minister Dusan Mramor resigned on Wednesday (13 July), a week after police raided the country's central bank office.

Mramor, who had been minister since September 2014, said he resigned for personal reasons. Local media cited health issues.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

On Tuesday, during a trip to Brussels for an EU finance ministers meeting, he condemned last week's police raid as a "direct attack on the institution".

On 6 July, the headquarters of the central bank and of the state-owned bank Nova Ljubljanska Banka as well as offices of consultancy firms Deloitte and Ernst & Young were searched over allegations of abuse of office and official duties during a bank bailout in 2013.


More than €4.5 billion of public money were injected into several banks in 2013 and holders of subordinated bonds lost €257 million in what Slovenia's prosecutor believes was a scam by which bonds were unduly considered as bad loans towards which banks had no obligation.

The raid sparked a letter from European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi to the European Commission and Slovenia's prosecutor, saying it was an “unlawful seizure of ECB information”.

Mramor said on Tuesday that the raid showed that someone wanted to "kill the messenger", referring to the central bank, which assessed the disputed bad loans in the banking system.

Mramor, who managed to get Slovenia out of an EU excessive deficit procedure in June, was considered a strong supporter of German finance minister Wolfgang Schauble's austerity policies.

Former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis said Mramor was the first to propose Greece's exit from the eurozone during a Eurogroup meeting last year.

Mramor's right-hand man, finance secretary of state Metod Dragonja, resigned at the same time. He was involved in a controversy over the management of the Port of Koper, Slovenia's main port.

During a recent blockade of the port by workers, Dragonja was accused of being one of the masterminds of a concealed plan to privatise the port. He was also accused of providing false information on the port's business results to parliament.

Alenka Bratusek, an MP who was Slovenia's prime minister during the 2013 bank bailout, reacted to the resignations by saying that there were "much larger reasons than the Port of Koper issue".

MEPs press EU Commission over Qatari-paid business-class flights

Pro-transparency MEPs are asking probing questions into possible conflict of interest between a senior EU commission official and Qatar, following revelations his business class trips were paid by Doha while negotiating a market access deal for its national airline.

Opinion

Biden's 'democracy summit' poses questions for EU identity

From the perspective of international relations, the EU is a rare bird indeed. Theoretically speaking it cannot even exist. The charter of the United Nations, which underlies the current system of global governance, distinguishes between states and organisations of states.

Opinion

Turkey's election — the Erdoğan vs Kılıçdaroğlu showdown

Turkey goes to the polls in May for both a new parliament and new president, after incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdoğan decided against a post-earthquake postponement. The parliamentary outcome is easy to predict — the presidential one less so.

Latest News

  1. EU to press South Korea on arming Ukraine
  2. Aid agencies clam up in Congo sex-for-work scandal
  3. Ukraine — what's been destroyed so far, and who pays?
  4. EU sending anti-coup mission to Moldova in May
  5. Firms will have to reveal and close gender pay-gap
  6. Why do 83% of Albanians want to leave Albania?
  7. Police violence in rural French water demos sparks protests
  8. Work insecurity: the high cost of ultra-fast grocery deliveries

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. EFBWWEFBWW calls for the EC to stop exploitation in subcontracting chains
  2. InformaConnecting Expert Industry-Leaders, Top Suppliers, and Inquiring Buyers all in one space - visit Battery Show Europe.
  3. EFBWWEFBWW and FIEC do not agree to any exemptions to mandatory prior notifications in construction
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic and Baltic ways to prevent gender-based violence
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Economic gender equality now! Nordic ways to close the pension gap
  6. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Pushing back the push-back - Nordic solutions to online gender-based violence

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us