By: C. R., STA
With the current results, wherein the referendums on RTVS, the government and long-term care failed, SDS MP Branko Grims strongly doubts that people were fully aware of the content of their decisions. They voted for higher taxes, a higher RTV contribution, and an ideological monolith on RTVS, and gave up their rights from long-term care for at least a year, he estimated.
SDS representatives monitored the results of today’s referendums at the party’s headquarters in Ljubljana, where party president Janez Janša, who is abroad, was not present. For now, he only responded on Twitter, where he estimated that people voted “yes” thinking that they were defending their rights. “With a 99% media monopoly, how can they be deceived next time,” he asked himself.
Regarding the amendments to the law on the government, he wrote that the result of over 40 percent for the SDS proposal to reject the law is “purely OK” from the point of view of political-party calculations. “But it is not OK from the point of view of our common interest, it is not OK for taxpayers, who are waiting for new costs supported by the majority,” he is convinced.
On the party side, the party’s MPs reacted to the first partial unofficial results.
In a statement to the media, Branko Grims also assessed that before the referendums, there was a lot of media manipulation and deception, as well as false statements about what people were really deciding on.
He thanked everyone who went to the referendum, especially those who voted against the three laws and for “making Slovenia richer, more successful, pluralistic, and having rights from sustainable care”. In such a situation, according to him, we have to ask ourselves what the situation is like in Slovenia, that “instead of the content, the media managed to channel the discussion into ideology and personal prejudices, who is for this one and who is for that one, instead of people deciding, what is better for them, what is best for their wallet”. “And then it is not surprising if the situation in Slovenia is more and more similar to those in Germany in 1933,” he added.
As Alenka Jeraj said regarding the amendment to the Law on Radio-television Slovenia (RTVS), it is similar to the regulation from the 1990s, which caused chaos and problems at RTVS. “According to the law of 2005, this was regulated, but every time a right-wing government was in power, we witnessed emergency situations. At that time, they shouted about censorship, pressure on journalists, the takeover of RTVS and the like. This shows that our media space is heavily tilted to the left and does not allow for pluralism,” Jeraj said.
According to her, by manipulating the law to withdraw politics from RTVS, government policy is actually coming through the side door to RTVS. She thanked everyone who voted against the amendment. “Unfortunately, there were not enough of us and so we are getting a completely political Golob’s TV, which will be financed by citizens through a higher contribution,” she said and assessed that “as of today, we are moving away from democratic standards in the field of media”.
MP Zvonko Černač estimated that people did not gain anything from the results, but many will lose their acquired rights, namely the weakest will lose the most – the elderly, the disabled or those who need help from others, “because their rights will be delayed for at least a year from the Long-Term Care Act”. According to him, this law involved the most lies and manipulations on the part of government representatives. People were threatened with the loss of their existing rights, “but due to the false propaganda of the government parties, many thought that they were voting for the regulation of the area that was regulated by the law that was adopted a year ago”.
“They are also losing people’s wallets, because through higher taxes, people will have to finance the ministerial chairs of political losers who were not elected to parliament by the voters in April. Tomorrow, symbolically, the government coalition will pass a law that abolishes the income tax law of the previous government, which brought about a gradual reduction in taxes and, as a result, a rise in wages for everyone,” he added.
Otherwise, the law is rejected in the referendum if the majority of voters who have validly voted against it, provided that at least one fifth of all eligible voters vote against it. Partial unofficial results after almost all counted ballots show that the voters in the referendums approved all three laws with a majority vote in favour.
Another statement from MP Grims:
The majority voted for:
– raising taxes
– increasing the RTV contribution and the left ideological monopoly on RTVS,
– loss of rights to sustainable care.
The result of media manipulation and unconstitutional incitement of hatred towards SDS. Slovenia is becoming more and more like Germany in 1933…
