By: Tanja Brkić / Nova24tv
“A rather dangerous precedent has been set for the future,” said ZNP president Matevž Tomšič about the adoption of Golob’s law on RTVS due to the failure of the referendum. The political scientist Dr Miro Haček agreed and added that from now on “any government that will have an absolute majority, will be able to change the law on anything, not only on RTV.” He also claims that this is certainly not something very positive for the Slovenian legal system, especially not for the predictability of the Slovenian legal system, “because who would want to live in a country where laws can change overnight?”.
The referendum on RTVS failed, and according to the latest published data, the voters supported the RTV law with 62 percent, with which Golob’s government will subjugate the public RTV Slovenia and turn it into a kind of government brass, where there will be no room for a critical voice. According to the president of ZNP, Dr Matevž Tomšič, Golob’s government succeeded with the constantly repeated “mantra about the depoliticisation of RTVS”, although the situation is different, “the politicisation will only begin now”, Tomšič is convinced. The political scientist Dr Miro Haček agreed. He claims that the adoption of the RTVS Act in this way is worrying for the Slovenian legal order, and both agreed that this sets a dangerous precedent for the future.
“The left is still strong on this wave of mobilisation, which they managed to do for the needs of the parliamentary elections, and this wave has clearly not subsided yet, which is understandable, since the parliamentary elections were a few months ago, the government has not been in the saddle for a long time and still enjoys high support. Here, with some mantra about depoliticisation, saying that RTVS is now under Janša’s control and that now everything will be better, they clearly managed to convince the voters, although I estimate that there is a very high probability that only now will real politicisation take place,” claims Tomšič.
Let us remind you that the new law excludes viewers and listeners who pay the RTV contribution, and according to the new law, only certain groups are authorised to appoint directly, and it excludes all others who have had this right so far. The petitioner of the referendum against the law, SDS, repeatedly emphasised that the law “decapitates” programme councillors, who are constitutionally protected, and that the law would also lead to the end of the independent RTVS.
“When someone mentions the word depoliticisation, it sounds good in the sense that politics will move away, especially for someone who does not know the situation. The fact is that the situation is reversed, and we can expect that the left will actually take over. It already had a lot of control, but now it will be even stronger,” Tomšič is convinced, adding that this is “a rather dangerous precedent that will apply in the future as well. If there is a change of government in the next elections and the right-wing comes to power, it will also be able to sweep away the then-leadership with the law in an expedited procedure.”
Haček also believes that from now on this will be the practice of every majority government in advance, “any government that will have an absolute majority will be able to change the law on anything, not only on RTV,” he claims, and adds that for the Slovenian legal order this is certainly not something very positive, especially not for the predictability of the Slovenian legal order, “because who would want to live in a country where laws can change overnight”?
Before there was little circulation, now the pressure will be greater
Tomšič explained that so far there has been at least some circulation, since the programme parliament did not elect all the councillors at the same time and they always changed in the sense that “sometimes the programme council was a little more left-leaning, and sometimes it is a little more right – and from now on, the vast majority, if not all, of the members in the programme council will be supporters of the left, and when there is a new change in the coalition, it will be able to establish such a law that they will be in control.” Regarding the “minority” of journalists who have been a thorn in the side of leftists from the very beginning, such as Igor Pirković, Jože Možina, and Luka Svetina, Tomšič believes that it depends on their employment method, “some of them are permanently employed, some are on a different contract. For those who are permanently employed, it is difficult to say that they will be fired easily, especially since it is a public institution, but the pressure on them will probably increase a lot.”
How the matter will develop from here on, according to Haček, the National Electoral Commission will first determine the official result of the referendum. “If it were to follow its own schedule, it would do it once in January, but if it wanted to hurry, it would change the rules of the game in the middle of the election process, which is otherwise not characteristic of democratic countries, since the rules of the game must be known and determined in advance. But since all three referendums failed and it is not a question of quorum, so there is no need to wait, everything could probably be done a little earlier. The Labour Assembly will then be informed of the result, it will be published in the Official Gazette and announced by the President of the Republic, and it will come into force the next day after the announcement, which is also quite unusual.”
Haček believes that several scenarios are likely, but the most likely one, which has also been publicly announced several times, is that “probably those who have and can demonstrate a legal interest will lose their mandates before the end of half of their mandate and will be able to file constitutional appeals and challenge the constitutionality of this law. According to him, there are two options here as well, namely suspending the law, if they later find that the law is unconstitutional, as it would be difficult to repair the damage later, and not suspending the law. In this case, the implementation of the law will take several months until all authorities are appointed, and public calls are published”, concluded Haček, who added that the adoption of the law is a big concern for a country that is considered democratic.