By: Nina Žoher (Nova24tv)
The first regular session of this year began today with parliamentary questions to the Prime Minister Janez Janša and the Minister. The Prime Minister answered questions related to the state of the economy at the time of the current epidemiological situation, proposing an amendment to the Infectious Diseases Act and the implementation of the Long-Term Care Act. “It is normal for the opposition and the position to assess the situation differently, but at least when it comes to some fundamental postulates, we should still speak the same language. Instead of everyone being happy that Slovenia is ranked high, when we have good data, high growth, historically the lowest unemployment, some are sad about it,” Janša pointed out, among other things.
MP Branko Simonovič from DeSUS asked Prime Minister Janez Janša about the implementation of the law on long-term care, which was adopted by the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia in December last year. He emphasised that it was necessary to prepare several by-laws, which would define in more detail the assessment scale for entitlement to long-term care, the range and manner of providing long-term care services, the register of providers and control over their work. He was interested in how far the preparation of these by-laws is, whether they are expected to be adopted within the deadline and whether the participation of the external professional public is envisaged in the drafting of the text of these by-laws.
The rules will be adopted within the time limit prescribed by law
Janša initially thanked for the support of the law, which has been in the making for a long time. “At the same time, this shows that some parts of the entire corpus of long-term care legislation, including by-laws, were drafted on an ongoing basis, that is, when the law was being drafted.” According to Janša, there was a dilemma with individual provisions, whether to include something in the law itself or leave it to by-laws. “Most of what the law stipulates to be regulated in nine bylaws has been discussed and also written in various variants during the process of drafting the law,” said the Prime Minister, adding that of course these are not yet rules. Namely, these are being created now, all nine. “As you said, the deadline for adoption or preparation is March 18th, and according to the assurances of both competent ministries, the first rules will go public this week. As for the question of who will be involved, as mentioned, the rules will be discussed in public before the competent ministers sign it and it will be published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia. There will be time for comments (both for lay people and for the comments of the professional public), no one will be excluded,” Janša assured.
The data are indisputable: Slovenia is making economic progress
“Given the constant news about the poor state of the Slovenian economy, the politically negative attitude of European countries towards Slovenia regarding the disregard for the rights and rights of some, and the general poor situation in the country in all areas,” the SNS leader Zmago Jelinčič asked the Prime Minister what the actual situation in the country is. In his reply, Janša emphasised that one flat-rate assessment was based on feelings and tastes, which are of course different, and the other was an assessment based on objective facts (figures, data from the National Statistics Office, Eurostat, the European Commission and other relevant European Union offices, and the OECD). “Based on indisputable data, we can create a realistic picture. We can create this through comparisons. If you are alone, you are both the first and the last, but if you are part of a group, then based on objective data you can see where you are in real comparison with those who are in a similar situation. Given that the covid-19 pandemic was a symmetrical threat (it affected everyone), comparisons are also realistic from this point of view.”
“The assessment or scale of the success of individual countries in dealing with the epidemic, published in the British The Economist, ranked Slovenia second in performance, after Denmark.” Janša emphasised that this scale was not made based on the taste of the journalists of this magazine, but based on OECD data, which everyone recognises as the most relevant when it comes to economic indicators. “It has never been heard that this information would not hold. In addition, they are the same as those used by the European Commission in its estimates and forecasts, and these data show that during the pandemic, i.e., before the end of last year, Slovenia maintained its potential. Not only has it maintained it, but it has even increased it,” he stressed. “During this time, the disposable income of households in Slovenia increased by ten percent. Whichever period you take after 2008 you will see that household income has never increased by 10 percent. All this even though we borrowed more in most of these comparable periods. During this period, Slovenia borrowed 20 percent less than the euro area average, than the national debt grew in the euro area at that time. During this time, for example, the value of capital investments in stock markets grew by 33 percent. Which means that during this pandemic, due to the measures we took, the Slovenian economy progressed. This did not only benefit economics who create jobs, but also people,” Janša explained, adding that this increased their disposable income. As for the accusations about the pre-election candies, Janša said that they were said by those people who they first took as serious. If this accusation were true, it would mean that the current government coalition has invented both a pandemic and a rise in energy prices on world markets. “Anyone who considers us so omnipotent should think about what he is saying,” the Prime minister Concluded.
It is unbelievable that a man who is sent to the European Commission by the state and receives a salary of 20,000 euros a month endangers the funds for urgent investments in our country.
As there are accusations from some about the sale of shares in Sava to Hungarians, Janša explained that some other governments have sold shares to foreigners. Mostly those who are now expressing criticism at the expense of this government. “This government has nothing to do with this sale. One of the previous governments sold Sava Turizem to a foreign fund. This foreign fund has now sold or offered this share to another foreign fund. It is amazing how those who gave a lot, from banks to tourist facilities to foreigners, are now pointing at this government.” Around the efforts of some to freeze negotiated EU funds, he said this was a waste of time. He criticised MEP Tanja Fajon, who said that Slovenia needed to condition its resources with criticisms that she considers relevant. “However, when we have heard in recent days that the Attorney General has sent a letter to Brussels requesting conditionality on the freezing of these funds, I must say that this is bordering on a coup,” he was critical. He also recalled the past conduct of Commissioner Janez Lenarčič, when he joined those who would condition these funds. “A man sent to the European Commission by the state, who receives 20,000 euros a month, is now endangering funds for urgently needed infrastructure investments in this country,” he added.
All other governments in the EU Member States have acted primarily through decrees
MP Janja Sluga asked the Prime Minister about the government’s position on the amendment to the law on infectious diseases, which will be discussed in the Temple of Democracy on Thursday. Regarding allegations that Slovenia ruled by decrees and that there was no legal or constitutional basis, Janša explained that no other EU member state had adopted 10 anti-corona packages as adopted by this National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia at the time of the conflict or the creation of a legal basis for fighting the epidemic or supplementing this legal basis. “It was with each of these laws that the legal basis was upgraded. With every law. It is true that the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia annulled several acts. If you look at the percentage, it is a minor number, a share of what has changed. Now it is being parroted how the government ruled with decrees,” said Prime Minister critically, explaining that all other governments in the EU member states acted primarily by decrees. In Italy, decrees were made by the Prime Minister, in France by the President of the country, a single man. They also declared a state of emergency. None of this happened to us, he pointed out.
“The legal basis that is still in force to the greatest extent possible, and which we have upgraded with these ten laws, is the Infectious Diseases Act, which was adopted decades ago. There were several pandemics in the world at the time, but nothing had changed drastically. This law is about the same as other countries have it.” According to Janša, the law is as it should be according to WHO guidelines. “This law that you are talking about and is supposed to be drafted by civil society, but it is basically a political extension of the current opposition, is contrary to the constitution, recommended by the WHO and is completely inoperative. Read this law and put yourself in the role of the NIJZ, the government and imagine how this would work in practice. Under this law, no epidemic can be tackled, as it would take weeks before the whole profession could agree on certain issues, and only then could the authorities make decisions. It is as if the virus is paying attention to this,” criticised Janša, who called on MP Sluga to be serious.
Some grieve high growth and lowest unemployment
Mojca Žnidarič from the party Konkretno asked Janša how he assesses Slovenia’s ranking on the world rankings. Janša replied that the OECD includes the most developed countries in the world. Even if more countries were included, Slovenia would probably be in second place. As I said, the numbers are objective, and the feelings can be different. According to him, it is normal that the opposition and the position assess the situation differently, “but at least when it comes to some basic postulates, we should speak the same language.” Instead of everyone being happy that Slovenia is ranked high when we have good data, high growth, historically lowest unemployment, some are sad about it, the Prime Minister was critical and added the following: “You cannot compete just by opposing something, but you have to try to be better. This is what we currently need. We are competing to see who will be better,” he was clear.
