By: P.G.
This year marks 75 years since the first major measures introduced by the new communist government before the end of World War II, namely nationalisation, which in the form of expropriation meant the seizure of property, especially factories, and later agricultural land, as well as real estate. Of course, all under the pretext of slogans, such as “factories for workers” and the like – the result of all this was equality in poverty, except for those who were “more equal” than others.
But if you thought that such experiments in Slovenia are only part of distant history, you are very wrong. The followers of the revolutionary traditions, gathered in the Levica Party, prepared a special programme document last year, in which they allegedly advocate for easier access of young people to housing. But, of course, not by interfering with various building monopolies and sucked leeches, which increase the average amount of rents at the expense of their co-determination in building permits, but by hitting the owners of apartments that rent them out.
On Twitter, SMC MP Gregor Perič posted an excerpt where Levica proposes to freeze the payment of rent during the epidemic. Thus, they propose that tenants of the law be exempt from paying rents during the epidemic. Likewise, tenants without leases are entitled to equal rights with those who have concluded leases. The left also wants to achieve that during the epidemic the owner of the apartment or the landlord should not terminate the tenancy agreement without the express permission of the tenant.
As we have learned, these are the amendments of Levica to the sixth package of legislation to alleviate the crisis caused by the epidemics, namely the amendment to Article 113.
It is clear from the text itself that the proponents have quite mixed notions about the lease itself. First, they legally support rent without a lease, which is actually an illegal situation, and then in the next paragraph they already say that without the explicit permission of the tenant, owners cannot terminate the contract during an epidemic (what if the contract does not exist at all?). According to them, only they know what the equality of rights of legal and illegal tenants means – but perhaps it is a matter of material benefits related to the registration of “straw” tenants at one address, which we experienced in our country just recently, when it was established that there are a huge number of residents registered at one address?
Well, at the same time, Levica would unilaterally freeze the obligation of tenants during the epidemic, which means that homeowners would be (temporarily?) expropriated.
At the same time, MP Perič warns that Levica wants to punish those who managed to create something more with their work and savings. “They are proposing the temporary expropriation of landlords, in clear violation of Article 69 of the Constitution.” And what does the Constitution say in this article? “Ownership of real property may be revoked or limited for public benefit against compensation in kind or against compensation under the conditions laid down by law. “So: expropriation is really only possible in exceptional cases, and even then under strictly defined conditions, whereby the expropriated persons must be compensated.
It is also worth mentioning the otherwise unconstructive attitude of both Levica and the other three parties that make up the leftist Coalition of the Constitutional Arc, for, so to speak, in the midst of an epidemic, they demand a change of government, of course with the help of godparents from the background (deep state), which is nothing but a coup d’etat. The amendments to the sixth anti-corona package also show what would happen to us if Levica came to power, since the very proposal to freeze rents, which would be mandated by law, meant a gross encroachment on private property, which violates the right to private property and the free disposal of it. Do we really want such a future, where the state could freely expropriate us at any moment?
