Maribor - The supervisory board of the electricity distributor Elektro Maribor has given a full term to acting chairman Jože Hebar at an emergency meeting on Monday. Hebar will be given the opportunity to lead the company into a green and energy-efficient future, the board said.

As reported on Saturday by the daily Večer, two other directors of departments within the company had responded to the board's call for applications, but they confirmed their trust in Hebar in the end.

Hebar was appointed acting chairman at Elektro Maribor in November after the dismissal of Boris Sovič, who had led the company for nine years. The supervisory board has rejected the allegations that its members had been pressurised by politics to dismiss the long-time chairman.

As the reason for Sovič's dismissal they cited delays in the achievement of business goals, inadequate preparation for the green transformation, poor oversight of subsidiaries, and loss of trust.

"The decision was made solely on the basis of facts," chief supervisor Samo Iršič told the press back then. Meanwhile, Sovič rejected the board's reasons for his dismissal, arguing that the decision was politically motivated and accepted before the reasons for it were even known.