Both candidates confirmed the candidacy, and the coalition is leaning more towards Damijan, with the help of votes from the Left.

Economists and colleagues, professors Igor Masten and Jože P. Damijan, both with high references and recommendations, are fighting for the Governor’s position. The party policy, which will appoint the Governor, is mainly interested in the position of the candidates on the expropriation of the stakeholder of qualified obligations during the resolution in 2013 and whether they support the resolution or not.

The difference is interesting: Damijan believes, the resolution of the banks five years ago is one of the most controversial and non-transparent episodes about the property redistribution. Masten, however, believes that the resolution was concrete, methodologically transparent and a result of badly accumulated loans.

Does the coalition prefer Damijan?
The coalition prefers Damijan’s answers to those questions, and besides that, the Left also supports him, because his views are similar to views of the former Greek Finance Minister Varufakis.

SAB, NSi, and SDS apparently support Masten. They believe he speaks in favour of quick and effective public investigation of the bank vault following the Icelandic banking crisis model, while in the case of expropriated bank shareholders he talks about the international practice of the affected uninformed investors.

They both need 46 votes in the National Assembly in order to get elected.

In President Borut Pahor’s office, they confirmed, that there were “several applicants”, and the exact number of the candidates and their names will be revealed on Monday.