By: Gal Kovač / Nova24tv
“This week shows once again that Slovenia is in a state of emergency when it comes to its coalition. Extraordinary sessions are being called for one day in advance, and laws are being passed under emergency procedures. It is as if Slovenia is in a state of emergency,” the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS) wrote in a recent press release. They claim that in this way, the government of Robert Golob is making the work of the opposition impossible. As a result, they have less time to prepare for the sessions in a quality manner, and they also pointed out that this is very hypocritical of the former parties of the so-called Constitutional Arch Coalition (Koalicija ustavnega loka – KUL).
“The opposition MPs are not MPs who oppose all of the government’s proposals in advance, but it is our job to examine all the materials submitted by the ruling party, to form an opinion on them, to propose amendments, to offer alternatives,” says the largest opposition party.
In the press release, they go on to say that the meetings of the important working bodies, which offer the greatest opportunity to exercise parliamentarianism, are announced 24 hours or less before the start of the sessions, “which is both frivolous and disrespectful.”
The former opposition’s hypocrisy
The SDS party also points to the duplicity of the former opposition parties, which complained about deadlines being too short while we were in a real state of emergency during the previous government’s mandate. “During the previous government’s term, when the anti-corona legislative packages were being adopted, the representatives of the so-called Constitutional Arch Coalition were full of complaints about how they did not have time to adequately prepare for the adoption of legislation that helped Slovenians to get through the times of crisis, when the emergency procedures were actually justified. They talked about how laws need to be passed in a different manner. And what is different today? Today, laws are easily passed under the emergency procedure, even by abusing the said procedure, and they are attempting to thwart the work of the opposition, but what is also different is that unlike during the previous government term, there is no crisis situation in Slovenia today that would put people’s lives at risk and would delay the adoption of legislation,” they wrote.
The SDS party concludes that, unlike others in the current opposition, they are aware that citizens expect all of the representatives of the people to “come together and make good decisions for everyone.”