Members of the National Council and the ministers are getting first salary reduced due to the first anti-crisis package. The opposition has been shouting in recent days that government officials will increase their salaries by 35 percent, as part of the special allowance, paid during the COVID-19 epidemic.
Given that the group of officials, who could receive the paid allowance, also includes their officials, they could already see from the data on their salaries and also that none of them received this allowance. According to known data, the total wage bill for officials in March 2020 amounted to 387.860 euros and in April 2020 it dropped to 321.219 thousand euros. In reviewing this measure, however, we quickly notice that the fates of officials did not want to be shared by judges and prosecutors.
Mayors, who also helped the country to successfully emerge from the crisis during the worst health crisis in Slovenia, are also exempt from the government’s measure. Privileged among pensioners Milan Kučan will receive a reduced pension only next month. According to Pahor’s cabinet, the reduced salary of the President of the Republic will be taken into account for the month of May 2020, as former President Kučan still receives 80 percent of the President’s salary as a supplement to his pension.
The President of the National Assembly, Igor Zorčič, received 4.641 euros in April and in March he received 5.550 euros gross. The same fate befell President Borut Pahor, as his salary fell from 5.947 to 4.437 euros gross. Prime Minister Janez Janša will receive only 2.972 euros gross. The President of the National Council, Alojz Kovšca, will have to accept a reduction in his March salary from EUR 5.744.22 to EUR 4.749.35 gross.
On the other hand, NOVA24TV received information that the same high salaries for April as before were received by European Commissioner Janez Lenarčič in the amount of 17.492 euros, SIGMA program director at the OECD Gregor Virant received 12.500 euros, MEP Tanja Fajon 10.456 euros and NLB CEO Blaž Brodnjak 8.500 euros gross. They also sent everyone questions about whether they would reduce their salaries by 30 percent and share the fate of the remaining Slovenian officials and MEPs from the political party SDS. We are still waiting for answers…