By: Sara Bertoncelj / Nova24tv
“Politicians have a responsibility to the state first. People are not interested in who will be in power, who will be who, but they are only interested in how they will live tomorrow. Will they have a decent salary, will they have a decent pension, and will they be able to put their dreams and ideas into practice. And this is what every government is obliged to do,” Vice Prime Minister Matej Tonin said on 24ur Zvečer, explaining that taxes are being reduced so that people have more money left in their wallets, so that more can be spent and will boost the economy in this way. “As for the preliminary elections, we are talking here today as if there were not 40,000 people on the street. You know, we were elected by the people and I do not know why they are so afraid of these elections,” was the winning sentence of Marjan Šarec, which he repeated several times – probably in the desire to become real.
The elections are practically here, as they will take place in a year’s time, reminded Vice Prime Minister Matej Tonin, who finds the argument about whether they will take place a couple of months sooner or later extremely pointless. We must act above all in a state-forming manner. The presidency of the EU Council is just around the corner and the coalition wants this presidency to go well. After the presidency, there will be elections and then there will be an opportunity to re-examine people’s trust. At the moment, it is also crucial for the government to appoint a new Minister of Justice, whether this vote will be based on a vote of confidence, is a decision of the Prime Minister. The host of the 24ur Zvečer show was interested in whether Zdravko Počivalšek’s return to the parliamentary benches is still a possibility. Tonin replied that this depends on the state-forming of the MPs. If it turns out that they can secure an adequate majority of Members without the return of Počivalšek, then this will not be necessary.
So preliminary elections are not on the table, the coalition is moving forward. “Yes, this is called governing at any cost,” remarked Marjan Šarec. He mentioned the resignation of the Minister of Justice Lilijana Kozlovič, which, in his opinion, was due to the illegal annulment of the tender for two European prosecutors – which was also the subject of their failed constitutional accusation. “As for the preliminary elections, we are talking here today as if there were not 40,000 people on the street. You know, we were elected by the people and I do not know why they are so afraid of these elections, they talk about the presidency, the presidency is practically over and the presidency is no obstacle for the elections not taking place in the meantime,” he said in a single sentence from the sleeve of more untruths.
We would like more unity, cooperation, and more integration – to be stronger together as a country
It is a question of whether we do the election campaign now in the autumn, in the middle of the presidency, or whether we do it in the spring, when we will have successfully completed the presidency. Slovenia is well prepared for the presidency, and many challenges await us, including a debate on the future of the EU. “We take this task responsibly,” Tonin stressed. In addition, other results are very encouraging, the economy is recovering well – economic growth data show that Slovenia is among the best, unemployment is falling, on the other hand the epidemic is calming down – we are slowly returning to the life we know. “Before the presidency and the celebration of the 30th anniversary of our country, we would like more unity, cooperation, and more integration so that we can be stronger together as a country,” said the Minister of Defence.
Šarec replied to Tonin in his own style: “Mr. Tonin, then I invite you next Friday, when there will be protests again, to go together, and you will explain all this to the people there.” He added that people there think differently and once again suggested a strongly exaggerated number of participants in the recent protests. He also emphasised once again that the presidency of the EU Council was not really such a matter that the government could not fall in between – so he thought it was more of an excuse. He also repeated a few clichés, saying that the government could not explain to people the effects of vaccination and that the government was starving or suffocating the STA. The difference is obvious, while serious politicians are preparing for serious tasks, Šarec has enough time to wander around Ljubljana. Of course, the results are also suitable for this.
40,000 people at the protests and “we were elected by the people”
Unlike Šarec, Tonin did not list clichés and untruths, but facts. Šarec’s main theme of the show was 40,000 people at past protests – which is more than obviously not true, but he also repeatedly emphasised that they were elected by the people. He may have already forgotten that in 2018 the SDS party strongly won the early parliamentary elections – it received about once more votes than the LMŠ party. He is also not in favour of the fact that Šarec has already led the government and resigned cowardly, as he has obviously come to the realisation that he will not be able to lead the government in an epidemic. Tonin therefore said that Slovenia did not want to chair, but wanted to chair successfully. The economic results show the good work of this government, the funds with which Šarec accused Slovenia of going in debt were given to the people and not to the banks. People and the economy will start spending money and inflows will start going back into the budget. This is the right approach that will yield results. Among the challenges is also bureaucratisation, where things need to be speeded up. There will also be many tasks in the field of healthcare. After the covid crisis, healthcare will deteriorate, and two billion investments in the Slovenian healthcare system are expected. For Šarec, lowering taxes does not seem good at all, nor does he find the rest as golden as it appears. “People have said on the street what they want, people have elected us and as politicians we should not be afraid of early elections. When I resigned, I did not say that I was throwing in the towel, but I made it clear that I wanted preliminary elections,” he said, noting that they would at least fulfil their pre-election promises – there were only a few, but as we know, Šarec would rather not promise than do something too much.