Slovenia’s largest opposition party, the conservative Democratic Party, has tabled a motion of no-confidence in the government, a bid that has no chance of success but which offers the opposition the chance to further pressure Prime Minister Robert Golob nine months after he took office.
Golob’s government faces a long list of accusations which include the winding down of a museum of independence that has been widely decried by experts as a monument to Democrat leader Janez Janša (SDS) and his close allies, the discontinuation of a demographic office staffed largely by anti-abortion activists and the government’s response to the health crisis.
Setting out its list of grievances, the Democrats said the government’s “measures and announcements are leading towards the degradation of the nation, the family, private property and free enterprise”.
The motion is an attempt to call to reason to discuss “the contentious moves of this government that corrode Slovenia’s very foundations”, said Janša.
Regarding the decision to scrap the museum and the demographic office, the entire government has adopted the approach of “the most radical party in the government coalition” according to Janša’s party, is the Left.
Regarding the government’s management of the pandemic, “Golob’s government is focused almost exclusively on staffing and is taking its revenge against those who think differently, while almost completely neglecting the actual troubles of the citizens,” SDS said about how the current government dealt with healthcare sector staff during that period.
However, the motion is not likely to receive sufficient backing as 53 MPs in the 90-strong legislature are part of the parties currently in government.
Unlike many other motions, this one does not propose a new candidate for the prime minister position for several reasons, including that it would be “too kind” after one year to shift the responsibility to voters, said Janša. The aim is not to replace the government, he added.
This will be the fourth time a no-confidence vote is filed against the Slovenian government, with SDS having tabled them all without success.
Coalition parties have rejected the accusations, labelling the motion a dangerous manoeuvre to obstruct and bully the government.
“The government, the coalition and the Freedom Movement believe that this interpellation is completely unnecessary,” Health Minister Danijel Bešič Loredan said, adding that Janša had “crossed the limit of sanity”.
The Democrats have worked hard to derail the current government since the first day it took office. So far the party has tabled 30 bills to thwart the coalition’s legislative agenda and called for three referendums which did not go its way.
Most recently, a civic group with close ties to the Democrats has organised two massive protests by pensioners demanding significantly higher pensions.
(Sebastijan R. Maček | sta.si)
Source: euractiv.com
