By: T. F. / Nova24tv
Zdravko Počivalšek, president of the SMC party and Deputy Prime Minister, assured in an interview with the left wing newspaper Večer that the upcoming elections would be regular, although he agreed that there was also a smaller possibility of preliminary elections. It is no secret that the smallest coalition parties do not like the elections at the moment, because they are in the phase of restructuring, merging, connecting and forming a coalition for the elections. According to him, the presidency of the Council of the European Union will have to be successfully completed first.
“If I express myself in sports jargon, we play the last ten minutes of the term, and then there is another extension. I think that the referee will not write off the end of this match early, we must first end the presidency of the EU Council,” Počivalšek said for Večer’s Saturday supplement about the possibilities of preliminary elections.
Let’s remember. The SMC will have a congress on December 4th, at which three important matters will take place. They will be renamed to a party that will cover the central liberal center. “We will try to say this with the new name of the party,” Počivalšek explained, but he did not want to reveal the new name.
He highlighted merging as another important issue. Počivalšek believes that they will successfully conclude talks on this with the GAS party of Alojz Kovšca. They will also work out pre-election networking with some parties and individuals. “We already have relatively agreed matters with the Zeleni Slovenije party, with Bojan Šrot’s list in Celje and with at least two other mayors who have expressed interest in joining this. We are also in talks with two non-parliamentary parties and a few other mayors,” he explained.
This is followed by a public discussion with the Povežimo Slovenijo movement. “But this is the third step, which will be decided by the whole group, that is, the new party and those who will have an agreement signed with it,” he said. Počivalšek also said, among other things, that the state would no longer close its economy due to the spread of coronavirus infections, because it could no longer be afforded. They share the same opinion with Prime Minister Janez Janša.
Regarding the SAB party’s proposal to exclude SMC from Alda’s European political group, Počivalšek said that he was looking forward to discussing with Alda that he would be able to prove the party’s decisions with arguments and explain that SMC is a center party that knows how to work with different parties and act as a shield against deflections and connecting.
“Other Slovenian parties from Alda are not the center, they see liberalism only in a strong coalition with the Levica party,” he stressed. According to him, the legitimate question is what kind of liberals are the ones who signed an agreement with someone who has the nationalisation of property in the programme. He called on all liberal and economically oriented members of the SD, SAB and LMŠ to join the new liberal center, which is being created within the SMC.