Slovenian president to get funds to travel

SLOVENIA: After resigning himself to missing a United Nations summit and to crossing Europe by car to visit Spain, Slovenian president Janez Drnovsek is to receive a bigger travel allowance from a government that is growing weary of what critics call his New-Age eccentricities.

Some officials say Mr Drnovsek, who has been a leading politician in Slovenia since it claimed independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, has spent far too much money on foreign jaunts that were of personal interest rather than practical value for the country.

They were particularly critical of his visit to Bolivia this year to attend traditional Andean ceremonies around the inauguration of president Evo Morales, and a trip to India to meditate and take part in celebrations at a spiritual foundation.

Sceptics began to doubt the judgment of Mr Drnovsek (56) when he abandoned conventional medical treatment for cancer and moved out of the capital Ljubljana to a small village, where he now lives on organic vegetables and bread that he bakes himself.

He then riled Slovenia's foreign ministry by launching his own diplomatic initiatives, including a plan for Kosovo that angered both Serb and ethnic-Albanian sides, and one for Darfur that resulted in the brief imprisonment this year of the envoy he dispatched to the war-ravaged Sudanese province.

Mr Drnovsek's book of New-Age musings, Thoughts on Life and Awareness, has sold strongly in Slovenia, and his popularity has not been dented by his detractors, or the revelation that he fathered a child outside marriage in the 1980s.

But high approval ratings have not saved him from the criticism of a government he accused of blocking extra state money to fund his visits to this month's UN General Assembly and to various European nations.

After weeks of wrangling, prime minister Janez Jansa now says additional cash can be found, and claims Mr Drnovsek was premature in saying funds had been blocked.

"No one - not even someone with a higher level of awareness - could predict the reply on those funds," Mr Jansa said.

"There is no problem and additional funds can be found for urgent needs," Mr Jansa said, reassuring the president that he would not have to drive all the way to Spain for a visit.

"I do not remember a case when our president travelled by a regular plane in the last 15 years. Maybe he should start doing that," suggested Mr Jansa.