Ljubljana - The recently-established non-parliamentary party Our Future elected on Saturday Ivan Gale, a former senior employee of the Commodity Reserves Agency and a prominent whistleblower, as its president. Violeta Bulc, the former European commissioner, has become the party's vice president.

The party, which will present its candidate list for the upcoming election in the coming days, will unveil its platform at its congress in April.

Gale held a number of meetings with various movements and parties in recent months as he and his team wanted to join one of the parties to contest the 24 April election together. He gave priority to new and emerging parties since he is convinced that a different, inclusive and forward-looking politics requires the arrival of new names, his party said after yesterday's virtual congress.

Gale stressed that in the end they had decided that an independent path was the best way to put their values into practice.

The party, which was established in February, has invited experts in various fields to help prepare its platform, they said. A draft proposal has been drawn up and will be further developed in the run-up to the April congress.

Our Future said it would fight corruption and political staffing, fight for media independence, reform healthcare, promote the rule of law, social welfare and self-sufficiency in all areas.

Initially, Gale had not completely ruled out the possibility of joining Robert Golob's Freedom Movement, but he made no secret of the fact that he was particularly irked with Janja Sluga in Golob's party, whom he resented for "repeatedly discrediting him" in her former role as the head of the Modern Centre Party's deputy group and for "supporting Economy Minister Zdravko Počivalšek in the debate on the purchase of protective and medical equipment", the N1 news portal reported.

Gale is considered Slovenia's most prominent whistleblower. He accused government representatives, including Počivalšek, of meddling in the procurement of medical and personal protective equipment when the coronavirus first hit Slovenia in the spring of 2020.

He lost his job at the Commodity Reserves Agency in October 2020 after going public about this and later, in 2021, he and the agency reached a settlement over his sacking.

Bulc, with whom he is joining efforts to lead the new party, was one of the founding members of the then Miro Cerar Party, which won the 2014 general election.