“All I can say at the moment is that the constitutional accusation is an extremely important and serious constitutional legal tool. Whoever wants to file it, must have convincing, constitutional legal reasons. Otherwise, if there are no such reasons, this can be viewed as the abuse of the constitutional accusation,” said the constitutional lawyer Matej Avbelj, Ph.D. Sebastjan Jeretič, a political strategist, believes that during the current government’s term, there has been no concrete reason for using this instrument and that the opposition has no real arguments.
At yesterday’s press conference, Tanja Fajon said that the Social Democrats have already prepared a constitutional accusation against Prime Minister Janez Janša and invited the LMŠ and SAB parties to establish their positions. She cited inadmissible encroachments on the prosecution, the judiciary, the police and the media as the reasons for the constitutional accusation. However, according to political analyst Sebastjan Jeretič, this is just a new political game of the Slovenian opposition. “There has been no concrete action that would justify the use of this instrument, but this is, of course, a political move by the opposition, that rounds out all of the political fighting from the last couple of months. I simply do not see any sensible arguments for this constitutional accusation. To me, the moves that the opposition is problematizing do not seem to be big enough for a constitutional accusation,” Jeretič estimated.
According to Jeretič, the opposition parties SD, LMŠ and SAB are testing the discipline of the coalition. Jeretič claims that, according to his information, the government has enough reserves to pass any and all possible tests, “even if a member of parliament voted differently. There are currently no estimates that would point at the majority being at risk.” He did draw attention to the hot political events happening in DeSUS but pointed out that the DeSUS deputies themselves have repeatedly stated that this is a completely separate issue of Aleksandra Pivec and not the issue of their support for the government. “I believe that the biggest test would be the possible interpellation of Aleksandra Pivec, where we could really see if there actually is a majority. In any case, I think that, according to current information, the ruling coalition could easily overcome all three challenges (constitutional accusation, interpellation against Minister of the Interior Aleš Hojs, and Minister of Agriculture Aleksandra Pivec).”
Avbelj warns that the constitutional accusation is a very serious constitutional-legal tool and should not be abused for political games
In the past, constitutional lawyer Matej Avbelj, Ph.D., has proven with his arguments, that the letter of the Prime Minister Janez Janša to the General State Prosecutor Drago Šketa was not an interference in the work of the Prosecutor’s Office. We also reminded Avbelj of the fact that the old story about Janša’s interference in the work of the prosecution is among the reasons for the constitutional accusation. With this, Avbelj stated that at the time, no competent body had established that any interference actually happened. “So far, we only have these political statements, which are not constitutionally convincing.”
As Avbelj and Jeretič said, at the moment, the filing of a constitutional accusation at the moment makes no sense to them. That is why the constitutional lawyer Avbelj told our media outlet that the constitutional accusation is a very serious constitutional-legal too, “which should not be taken lightly because otherwise, it will be devalued and abused for political battles, which is not its intention.”
Avbelj then also pointed out that the opposition should resort to other mechanisms of political control, “rather than involving the most powerful weapon, the bazooka, which the constitutional accusation represents.”
Jeretič warns that the strength of the coalition will be shown at the amending of the state budget
We asked the political analyst and strategist of the Social Democrats’ election victory in the 2008 parliamentary elections, what he thinks is the strength of the coalition. Among other things, we wanted to know whether the SMC party represents a solid partner in the coalition. According to his information, despite some rumours, there are no serious signs that new problems are emerging on the SMC side.
The strength of the coalition will be shown at the amending of the state budget due to the severe economic situation caused by the global coronavirus epidemic around the world. “The government’s work is good. The processes for economic recovery are going very well. It’s a shame that energy has to be wasted on such matters, but unfortunately, this is the time we live in. If the Prime Minister decides that he has to tie the issue of confidence, I think that the amending of the state budget is the most appropriate choice for the matter. This is always a test for the coalition and one of the examples that checks the discipline of the parliamentary majority in the National Assembly,” Sebastjan Jeretič told us. He also warned that the Prime Minister might not intervene with the use of this instrument at all if the opposition would not be preparing three serious tests for him in the National Assembly.