Patria affair: the towel burns between Ljubljana and Helsinki

(B2) At the start, in December 2006, it was a simple contract for the delivery of 8x8 AMV armored vehicles and Nemo 120 mm mortars by a Finnish firm, Homeland, to the Slovenian army.

But a doubt arose quickly enough on the clarity of the case. A commission of inquiry was set up in Slovenia in March 2007, chaired by a member of the opposition. No real follow-up...

A banal complaint for corruption...

The case became complicated when the Finnish police, seized of a complaint, began to investigate acts of corruption (helped by the Austrian and Slovenian police, for the intermediaries). It took an even more precise turn in the spring of 2008. Several Patria employees were interviewed first. Then one of them stopped. In July, it is squarely a leader of the company who is imprisoned. Rather embarrassing for a firm largely owned (75%) by the Finnish state. A sum of around 21 million euros according to the Finnish media would have been used for various 'commissions' in the Slovenian ranks.

... turns into an affair of state

Today, it degenerates into a matter of state. The suspicion of corruption now reaches the top of the Slovenian state. A program (Mot) on public Finnish television directly implicated the Slovenian Prime Minister: Janez Jansa who, a few months ago, held the presidency of the European Union.

Cascading denials

The company flatly denied (see here). A more angry denial from Ljubljana, which calls for heavy artillery: the Minister of Defence, Karl Erjavec, steps up to the plate and threatens to freeze the contract with the Finnish company. An extraordinary session in the Slovenian Parliament is devoted to the subject. And a diplomatic note was handed over to Helsinki asking it to intervene with television (in the purest ex-Yugoslavian style). It must be said that we are in full campagne électorale. The elections take place on September 21. And all shots seem allowed. The Prime Minister, Jansa (liberal right), at the head of a coalition of several parties, is not sure of being renewed.

(NGV)

Finnish television report