By:Sara Bertoncelj
A public opinion poll conducted by the Parsifal Agency for Nova24TV in the days from the 21st of December to the 23rd of December showed that more than half of the respondents (56.2 percent) believe it is inappropriate to file a constructive vote of no confidence in the government during the covid-19 epidemic. In addition, the poll also showed that the vast majority (73.2 percent) do not see the DeSUS President Karl Erjavec in the role of the Prime Minister. With this, the people have proved that they are not falling for the Constitutional Arch Coalition’s cliches. The Constitutional Arch Coalition has been counting its votes for a long time now, and they seem to care very little about the fact that we are in the middle of a health crisis that has not spared any of the countries on the European continent.
In December, the Slovenian political space was, at least seemingly, caught in a tense situation. Members of the so-called Constitutional Arch Coalition (Koalicija ustavnega loka – referred to as KUL, which translates to cool) believed that they should file the constructive vote of no confidence in the current government in this year, but the lack of votes prevented them from doing so. Similarly, they are having some problems with the candidates for the Prime Minister. After Jože P. Damijan did not perform very well in this role, Karl Erjavec rushed to the rescue, taking over the position of President of the DeSUS party. This was then followed by the departure of the party from the government coalition, and the Minister of Health, Tomaž Gantar, resigned in the middle of the epidemic. After Erjavec became known as the possible candidate for the position of Prime Minister – he very much sees himself in this role – rumours have now started to circulate that a third person will appear as a candidate. The problem is that Erjavec does not even have much support in his own party.
However, Christmas has come and gone, and the plan for the current government to fall before this date has not been realised. Unfortunately, the epidemic is also still here, and therefore, it is still not the most appropriate time for various political battles and the overthrowing of the government. A public opinion poll conducted for Nova24TV by the Parsifal Agency in December asked, among other things, whether the respondents believe that now is a good time for such actions. The question read: “Do you believe that the covid-19 epidemic is an appropriate time for filing a vote of no confidence in the government?”
More than half of the respondents, namely, 56.2 percent, believe that it is not appropriate to file a vote of no confidence in the government during the covid-19 epidemic. Forty percent believe that such a move would be appropriate, and 3.8 percent of the respondents remain undecided.
If we take a look at the sex and education of the respondents, we see that there were more men than women among those who consider it inappropriate to file the vote of no confidence now, and when it comes to age, most of them were older than 55. When it comes to education, the majority have primary or vocational education.
The vast majority opposes Erjavec in the position of Prime Minister
The next question of the public opinion poll was: “Would Karl Erjavec be suitable for the Prime Minister?” The citizens’ responses came as a real surprise.
The vast majority, as many as 73.2 percent, believe that Karl Erjavec is not suitable for the role of Prime Minister. Only one fifth of the respondents, namely, 21.1 percent, believe he is the appropriate candidate for the position of Prime Minister, and 5.7 percent of the respondents answered with “I don’t know.” Among those who do not see Erjavec as the Prime Minister, the majority are, once again, men between the ages of 35 and 54, and in terms of education, in this answer, the respondents were fairly evenly distributed, with those with finished vocational and secondary school predominating.
The survey included 757 respondents, of which 50.1 percent were women. The average age of the participants is 51.9 years, and the standard deviation is 15.4 years. The majority of the respondents are from the oldest age group (44.0 percent), a slightly smaller share of participants belongs to the middle age group (37.1 percent), and the smallest number of respondents is from the youngest age group (18.9 percent). The majority of the respondents have completed high school (33.6 percent), followed by those with completed high education or higher (26.8 percent), 23.0 percent of respondents have finished vocational school, and 16.6 percent have either completed or have not completed primary school. The majority of the respondents currently reside in a small village or hamlet (52.7 percent), followed by those who live in the city (31.2 percent) or a smaller town (16.1 percent). Most of the respondents are from Central Slovenia (27 percent), followed by the Podravska (15.8 percent) and Savinjska (12 percent) region.