Aleš Čerin

Born 18 July 1949

Education: university graduate in law

Working fields: relations with the state, managing relations in the City Council, the City Administration's legal and personnel matters, leadership of the Councillors' Group of Zoran Janković's List

 

I was born in Ljubljana. After finishing primary school at Bežigrad High School, in 1973 I graduated from the Faculty of Law in Ljubljana. I am a man of business, so I spent the first ten years of my working life at Ljubljana industrial assembly companies, and then for eight years I found myself in politics: as President of the Ljubljana – Bežigrad Executive Board 1984-1986 and general secretary of the Executive Council, i.e. the Government of the Republic of Slovenia 1986-1992. From then until 2005 I worked at Mercator, from 1997 as a director. I have been a Deputy Mayor of the City of Ljubljana since 2006.

As my greatest achievements I count my work in the Slovenian government just at the time that we Slovenes were preparing for independence and the acquisition of our statehood. A second milestone in my work was the success story of Janković's management, when development and acquisition saw Mercator become the biggest and best company in the country. A third milestone was being part of the great and convincing victory at the 2006 elections and our successful work in the mandate that followed.

I have always been very active in sports, for two terms (1997 - 2005) I was President of the Slovenian Cycling Federation and I am still an avid cyclist. I am also proud of my two books (1999, 2006).

Greatest achievements in the previous term of office

In the previous term of office Ljubljana achieved recognition in Slovenia and in Europe. For the first time in the history of this independent nation Ljubljana as the capital raised itself, its demands and responsibilities to the government. The result of practical daily co-operation with the government is an agreement between the government and the city that we had prepared the basis of as early as when the previous government was in office but has still not been signed. Nevertheless, we still managed to get the Capital City of the Republic of Slovenia Act. Ljubljana has actually become a real European capital not only with the Slovenian EU Presidency but also via practical daily contacts that we have with foreign cities, countries, embassies and institutions.

Zoran Janković's List has broken the mould in the City Council. Not due to its majority, but because the City Council has taken on professionalism and the culture of dialogue in its work. For this reason, meetings have also become shorter and have all finished in a single day, while its resolutions have become oriented to the benefit of residents and not political horse-trading. Other than a few individuals, we have created a working dialogue with every city councillor.

We have transformed the city administration not just organisationally but in its ways of thinking, based on the managerial motto 'the customer is king'. The city staff have become professional, providing a professional service with the motto 'the resident is king'. This fits in with the fact that I performed the role of Deputy Mayor in a non-professional capacity and is also a reflection of a managerial approach and the independence of our list.

Expectations of this term of office

The slogan 'from words to action' that we used for the elections four years ago very much marked our previous mandate, thus 'Ljubljana is the friendliest city in the world' is a logical extension of the previous term of office, in which we proved two things: that in fact we operate for the wellbeing of the people of Ljubljana and that we put our agreements and promises into effect. It is true that an important burden of our programme is the comprehensive overhaul of traffic infrastructure, but to achieve our promises the balanced development of all the activities in the city is most important. In this I am considering the creation of conditions for economic development with communal and residential construction as well as the overall social infrastructure: university education, child protection, health, culture and sport, all in harmony with environmental protection.

The friendliest city in the world cannot be made by such a good city administration alone. Therefore it seems to me most important our slogan is taken on by all the people of Ljubljana for themselves to help co-create the friendliest city in the world.