Janez Jansa, former Slovenian PM tipped to be new NATO chief
02 Dec 2008
Janez Jansa, former Slovenian prime minister is tipped to be the next NATO chief once the term of current Nato seecretary general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, of the Netherlands, ends in May 2009.
According to the latest edition of the Slovenian weekly Reporter Janez Jansa,has been offered the post of NATO's secretary-general.
Jansa, who has received a number of offers from international organisations, found the recommendation for the NATO chief's job as the most interesting, according to the Reporter, which is close to centre-right political parties, including Jansa's Slovenian Democrats.
The magazine in its cover story mentioned that Jansa himself denied reports of being the likely candidate for the NATO chief. He expressed his intention to be in Slovenia political and continue to lead his party which is the biggest opposition party after the September general election in Slovenia.
NATO has been considering an experienced politician from a new member state for the office of secretary-general which would be a compromise solution between the United States and the European Union, according to the weekly.
NATO considered a candidate from Slovenia as a good compromise taking into account that Czech Republic and Poland are too pro-American and their candidate would not get the support of Germany and France.
To facilitate the organising of NATO's 60th anniversary ceremonies in April 2009, the pro US alliance extended current NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Netherlands term from this year end to May 2009.
