STA, 29 March 2022 - Izola Mayor Danilo Markočič has been charged with abuse of office in a case that led to the resignation of Aleksandra Pivec as agriculture minister in the autumn of 2020, regional paper Primorske Novice reported on Tuesday.
The charges, filed at the end of last year, concern a hotel bill that the municipality paid for Pivec and her sons during what was supposed to be an official function.
Markočič told the paper he had no knowledge of the charges and said that the former minister had reimbursed the municipality for the hotel bill.
The paper says Pivec is not among those charged, but the investigation showed payment of her bill was against the law.
The revelation that Pivec stayed with her sons in a hotel paid for by the municipality caused a political scandal after it was first revealed in the summer of 2020.
Pivec lost her job first as leader of the Pensioners' Party (DeSUS), which ended up imploding, and later as agriculture minister.
She left politics only briefly, having last year established a new party, Our Land, which has entered the election race.
