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Starting an open-ended thread,
but I wondered if anybody knows any more about the situation with Slovenian DefMin Veber and Slovene Telecom privatisation?
Here and here are general run-downs of the situation that I can find in English, and here is Veber's own Twitter feed (in Slovene).
As far as I can tell, it's crazy to consider this a scandal much less fire him over it, all he's accussed of is ordering a report written... Not into privatisation itself, but potential consequences on military (his remit), with him specifically calling out that the Telecom company owns all infrastructure the military relies on, including connections to secret facilities. He actually spoke of things like separating infrastructure from operator, or potential changes to law, which might be "remediary" measures which don't "rule out" a privatisation... And strangely, one of the MPs who seems most strongly pushing for his removal, had in fact asked him about the topic (telcom privatisation and how it impacts defense) in the Parliamentary Defense committee... The report would seemingly be in answer to the MP's own questions, in fact (although it may have been ordered before said questions, that the question was asked would seem to prove it's relevance). Justification for firing him seems to be implying that he somehow acted illegally, although that seems dubious assessment as he doesn't seem to have actually even looked at privatisation process itself rather just the defense implications (with DefMin being customer of Telcom), and in fact Veber is highlighting that the accusations against him seem to soft-pedal actually accusing him of breaking the law, only giving the impression that they are doing so.
FYI, the bidders are supposed to include Deutsche Telcom and a bunch of "buyout firms" including Bain Capital and Cinven. Politically, it seems a concern for all the telcom traffic to be foreign owned, especially when military also relies on it, certainly enough to write a report on the subject and identify possible remedial measures. (Veber also cites Croatian example, where apparently they are re-constituting state telcom network after finding themselves completely reliant on foreign owned operator, post privatisation).
Anyways, what's the opinion of the actual matter here? Foreign ownership of Slovene telcom that Slovene DefMin depends on?
What about broader political issues? The government shouldn't fall over this as Veber's party (Social Dems) isn't big enough for them to lose majority,
but could further events be likely which would trigger an election? How does Veber's party fit into NATO politicking re: Russia et al?
The MP who pushed for his dismissal the most, Matej Tonin, is of small 4% support PSi "pro EU right conservative" party,
while the PM Cerar's own party of EuroLiberal allegiance went from nothing (w/ no political background for him) to winning election in 6 weeks.
EDITED FOR STUPIDITY
but I wondered if anybody knows any more about the situation with Slovenian DefMin Veber and Slovene Telecom privatisation?
Here and here are general run-downs of the situation that I can find in English, and here is Veber's own Twitter feed (in Slovene).
As far as I can tell, it's crazy to consider this a scandal much less fire him over it, all he's accussed of is ordering a report written... Not into privatisation itself, but potential consequences on military (his remit), with him specifically calling out that the Telecom company owns all infrastructure the military relies on, including connections to secret facilities. He actually spoke of things like separating infrastructure from operator, or potential changes to law, which might be "remediary" measures which don't "rule out" a privatisation... And strangely, one of the MPs who seems most strongly pushing for his removal, had in fact asked him about the topic (telcom privatisation and how it impacts defense) in the Parliamentary Defense committee... The report would seemingly be in answer to the MP's own questions, in fact (although it may have been ordered before said questions, that the question was asked would seem to prove it's relevance). Justification for firing him seems to be implying that he somehow acted illegally, although that seems dubious assessment as he doesn't seem to have actually even looked at privatisation process itself rather just the defense implications (with DefMin being customer of Telcom), and in fact Veber is highlighting that the accusations against him seem to soft-pedal actually accusing him of breaking the law, only giving the impression that they are doing so.
FYI, the bidders are supposed to include Deutsche Telcom and a bunch of "buyout firms" including Bain Capital and Cinven. Politically, it seems a concern for all the telcom traffic to be foreign owned, especially when military also relies on it, certainly enough to write a report on the subject and identify possible remedial measures. (Veber also cites Croatian example, where apparently they are re-constituting state telcom network after finding themselves completely reliant on foreign owned operator, post privatisation).
Anyways, what's the opinion of the actual matter here? Foreign ownership of Slovene telcom that Slovene DefMin depends on?
What about broader political issues? The government shouldn't fall over this as Veber's party (Social Dems) isn't big enough for them to lose majority,
but could further events be likely which would trigger an election? How does Veber's party fit into NATO politicking re: Russia et al?
The MP who pushed for his dismissal the most, Matej Tonin, is of small 4% support PSi "pro EU right conservative" party,
while the PM Cerar's own party of EuroLiberal allegiance went from nothing (w/ no political background for him) to winning election in 6 weeks.
EDITED FOR STUPIDITY
Last edited by mutantsushi on Sat Apr 11, 2015 4:25 am; edited 2 times in total
