Earlier today Prime Minister Borut Pahor appointed Henrik Gjerkeš a candidate for the new minister for local self governance. Much like his predecessor Zlata Ploštajner, Gjerkeš is a virtual anonymous, with no reputation beyond his official bio. What is known is that the 44-year-old is a lecturer at the univesity of Nova Gorica, holds a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering and has apparently worked on several energy-related projects.
Henrik Gjerkeš and PM Borut Pahor (source)
Pengovsky expected the job to go to Meta Vesel Valentinčič, Ploštajner’s second-in-command, but apparently DeSUS president Karel Erjavec made (or was forced to make) a different choice, opting for the son of Marija Gjerkeš, a DeSUS vice-president. However, a little birdie told pengovsky that up until an hour before Gjerkeš’s nomination Pahor rejected the candidate, reportedly telling Erjavec that he had someone else in mind. Whether or not this is true and if true, who or what (again) persuaded Pahor to change his mind cave in to Erjavec remains unknown.
I stopped following daily politics, hence my headaches stopped, too 🙂
Looked up a bit of dr. Gjerkeš’ references and found nothing about local self governance. Judging upon his position at the university (professor and researcher) I’d rather see him staying at what he seems to be well qualified for. Unless my perception of qualification is completely wrong.
@Tiwlight: With me it is the other way around. I get headaches and a feeling of emptiness if I don’t follow politics 😀
@Bimbo: True. But then again, this is a political position, not an expert one. Sure, it’s good to know a few things about the area you are to (ad)minister, but it is not a pre-requisite. Besides, there is an old proverb in political sciencies: never send an expert to do a politician’s job
Pengy, sorry for the misunderstanding. I don’t give a damn about how qualified he is or isn’t for the ministry, but I feel sorry that “Slovenia” cannot find a better use of the people with such (tecnical) expertise. My strong belief is that this local self-governance in atomised communities can never do as much good for our progress and prosperity as lots of know-how that can be invested into economicaly sound projects. I wouldn’t like to see the good engineers, scientists or researchers to end up in a short term politic or bureaucratic jobs. That’s all I wanted to say.
True. True.