The fourth National Council held its maiden session on Wednesday and elected Blaz Kavcic its new president in a secret ballot. After taking over, Kavcic said that he would strive for constructive cooperation.
Members of the National Council, the upper chamber of parliament, elected Kavcic in the second round with 22 votes, while Alojz Kovsca received 14 votes.
The third candidate was the former Ljubljana University chancellor Joze Mencinger who received 11 votes in the first round.
Kavcic (58) said in his speech before the vote that he had dedicated the majority of his 30-year career to business, and that he had served as member of parliament in the 2000-2004 term.
Kavcic had been elected to parliament as a member of the Liberal Democrats (LDS), and the party has also put forward his candidacy for the president of the National Council.
According to him, more attention should be paid to civil society and NGOs. He believes that the current structure of the National Council, which is based on constitutional provisions, is good and showed positive results in the previous term.
He meanwhile said that he did not wish to be the opposition and that he hoped the government would not put him in that position. Although being a long-term member of the centre-left LDS, he believes that differentiation between the left and right was obsolete.
"Lobbying had turned out to be a successful move, there was no arm twisting, only a series of argument-based talks," Kavcic commented on media speculations concerning the background of his election.
He also did not reject suggestions that his election was the result of a political agreement between the LDS, the coalition Slovenian Democrats (SDS) and People's Party (SLS), saying that he could not imagine any president being elected without agreements between parties and interest groups.
Kavcic also said that ideas about a different role of the National Council were completely legitimate, adding that he had enough positive energy and will to to chair the upper chamber of the parliament.
Regarding the relationship with the Government, Kavcic said that he believed in cooperation and that he would strive for the Council to do all it can to achieve a coordination of proposed pieces of legislation before it considers vetoing them.
Kavcic, a member of the interest group representing local interests, is also a councillor of in the municipality of Skofja Loka and director of engineering company Loka Inzeniring.
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