“It is high time for the judges to make up their minds. Because at the moment, the government does not know whether it can continue in a certain direction, similar to that of the countries that are much more successful in fighting the epidemic than us – like Austria, for example – or if we should just come to terms with the current situation and let it run its course,” said Prime Minister Janez Janša. If the trend of interest in vaccination, which arose before the decision of the Constitutional Court, continued, we would currently be at a point, similar to the EU average, the Prime Minister explained, adding that as a result, there would have been several hundred fewer patients in hospitals and intensive care units, which would not be at the limit of their capacities.
On Monday, the National Assembly began its regular monthly session with parliamentary questions for Prime Minister Janez Janša and the ministers of his government. The questions for the Prime Minister were mainly related to the payment of taxes, corruption, the proposal for extraordinary harmonisation of pensions, and the epidemiological measures to further prevent the spread of Covid-19. The leader of the MPs of the Levica party (the Left), Matej Tašner Vatovec, said that his question for the Prime Minister would be related to the issue of “corruption and mafia management of the state,” however, within the question itself, he mentioned the behavioural and corrupt abilities of the government and its connection with businessman Rok Snežič, who is also allegedly related to the staff changes in the Gen-i company that is one of the largest suppliers in the Slovenian energy sector. Vatovec then also mentioned the ministers who talk about “crushing certain judges’ balls” (referring to the affair related to the recording of current Minister Vizjak’s conversation with the businessman Petan), trucks with Tonin’s masks (referring to the fact that a truck carrying masks, which was supposed to deliver them to Slovenia at the beginning of the epidemic, “disappeared” somewhere along the way and never actually came to Slovenia), the attempts to privatise public health, and tax gifts for the people who already have more than enough of everything. He added that the Janez Janša government has so far created or been involved in the largest number of corruption affairs.
He should instead look for corruption in the parallel mechanism
The Prime Minister replied to Vatovec that he had listed the titles of various articles from newspapers and reiterated that Snežič is neither his adviser nor an adviser of the government. Regarding the mafia management of the state, Prime Minister said, among other things, that the parallel mechanism, which has remained in place from the previous regime, actually controls large parts of the systems and subsystems in our country. He reminded everyone of how during the first and second rounds of elections in 1990, 90 percent of state archives were destroyed, the territorial defence was disarmed, 100,000 state-owned apartments were privatised, in addition to all central print media outlets. He also highlighted the case of Moskovič’s villa, the stolen Jewish villa which was exchanged for the building of the former Central Committee of the Communist Party of Slovenia on Tomšičeva Street in Ljubljana. “The largest state-owned bank has laundered 700 billion American dollars and Iranian money, which was used to support terrorism, build nuclear weapons and fund Iran’s secret service, and the state authorities turned a blind eye to all of this,” the Prime Minister added, pointing out that no one was tried for these crimes and, what is even worse, no one was convicted. In addition, commissions in the amount of 300 million euros were also paid as part of this deal – so the Prime Minister told Vatovec to instead look for corruption there, and not in sandwiches, adding that during that time, every staffing choice that could have been made according to the principle of negative selection, was realised.
Marko Bandelli (the SAB party) asked the Prime Minister about his position on the payment of taxes and those who “avoid paying taxes while benefitting from all the privileges provided by the taxes paid by other people.” He further said that we all pay taxes and that we all want a competitive tax environment without abolishing the welfare state. No one is particularly happy to be paying taxes, but this is the basis of an orderly community. He also mentioned the saying, “Give the emperor what belongs to the emperor, give God what belongs to God,” and then listed all of the things that the money from taxes is being spent on – according to the MP, the economy was also saved with the money from taxes, as we could not have afforded the lockdowns without this money. “What is your view on paying taxes, and what do you think of those who do not pay taxes but still benefit from other people paying them?” he asked the Prime Minister.
If we create more, we can also collect more in the state coffers, with lower tax rates
Janša replied that Bandelli had given many quotations and that he could have done the same thing himself. He stressed that every tax payment is something you take from someone, and someone else then decides where the money you made yourself goes, adding that taxes should always be fair. He also said that the Government’s Strategic Council for Reducing Bureaucracy, which is headed by Ivan Simič, has already removed many bureaucratic obstacles, but there are still some more extensive proposals being worked on, which are entirely dependent on the adoption of the relevant legislation. Concrete results have also begun to show already – namely, so far we have collected almost as much from taxes this year as we have in the year 2020 in its entirety, and at the end of the year, we will probably significantly exceed last year’s tax revenue without having to raise taxes. According to Janša, the basic interest is for the country to have high economic growth, high added value and employment rate in order to create as much as possible. “If we create more, we can also collect more in the state coffers, with lower tax rates for our common needs,” he said, adding that this has always proved to be the right way to go about it, even in other countries.
Minister Vizjak’s statement did not affect the paying of taxes in any way
Bandelli was, of course, more interested in the statement by Minister Andrej Vizjak from 14 years ago – namely, he said that paying taxes is stupid. The MP pointed out that the Minister tried to persuade the businessman to not pay taxes, so Bandelli asked the Prime Minister if he approves of such actions. The Prime Minister made it clear that he does not support calls for non-payment of taxes, but in the story in question, taxes were not the main problem. Namely, businessman Bojan Petan always paid his taxes, but he also created a hole worth more than 100 million euros in public finances, which then had to be covered by the taxpayers. There were no lawsuits against him; he is still a reputable businessman. Minister Vizjak’s statement did not affect the paying of taxes in any way, the Prime Minister pointed out, as he also checked the data on this. However, he once again pointed out that it is quite common for businessmen who are involved in politics in this country, Bandelli being one of them, to make holes in public finances, for which they then do not suffer any consequences whatsoever.
The injustice must be corrected, but the compensation must not lead to new differences
Branko Simonovič from the DeSUS party also asked a parliamentary question; namely, he wanted to know how the government would provide funds in the budget for the realisation of the extraordinary harmonisation of pensions. Namely, DeSUS MPs submitted a bill in May of this year, with which they want to finally eliminate the consequences of austerity measures implemented due to the economic crisis that mainly hurt the pensioners. As they explained, additional adjustments after 2016 only partially “gave back to the pensioners what is rightfully theirs,” so there are proposing that the pensions of all pensioners be adjusted in the amount of 3.5 percent in December. “I would like to know whether you will do everything you can to make sure that our proposal is adopted,” Simonovič asked the Prime Minister. Janša replied that the government would, within the limits of its strength and capabilities, strive for the law to be adopted in time and for the funds to be provided. “The purpose pursued by the law will be achieved if pensions are adjusted for pensioners who retired before and including in the year 2011 but were not in a fair position at the time. The 3.5 percent are not relevant to all pensioners,” he explained, stressing that not all pensioners are in the same situation. It is a matter of redressing injustice, but this compensation must not lead to new differences. The government, therefore, supports the adoption of the law, but in a way that will ensure that equalisation is ensured and that everyone, regardless of when they retired, will be treated equally. Janša also replied that, of course, given that not enough money is collected in the pension fund and that contributions from the state budget are made every year, these additional funds that need to be provided will also come from the budget.
The virus is a dictator in our country, and its dictatorship is supported by some
MP Anja Bah Žibert from the SDS party asked the Prime Minister what his position was on the epidemiological measures taken after the consultation with the medical experts and what government measures could Slovenia expect to further prevent the spread of the epidemic. “We often hear from left-wing politicians that we currently have a dictatorship in this country. If anyone – or rather, anything – is a dictator in Slovenia, it is the virus, and its dictatorship is maintained by a coalition of opponents of protective measures, with the support of the Constitutional Court, well-known organisers and participants in the unregistered protests, and the inciting media, which all continue to create additional problems for the healthcare workers. And this is where the anti-vaxxers have also found their place. Because of all these people, other people are dying,” Bah Žiber pointed out. The Prime Minister replied that the government is discussing new measures every day, which are based on the proposals from the medical experts, in order to properly address the situation. Additional measures will certainly be needed, but a lot also depends on the extent to which the measures implemented so far will be enforced. Janša also said that interest in vaccination is now increasing again; the numbers are similar to those we saw at the beginning of September when the RVT (recovered, vaccinated, tested) condition was introduced. He called on the Constitutional Court to finally make a decision in regard to this matter. Namely, the Constitutional Court temporarily suspended the measure of the obligatory RV (recovered or vaccinated) condition that was supposed to be implemented in state administration but has not yet made a ruling in this case. “The Constitutional Court has not yet annulled the decree, which means that it is not deciding on it yet – I do not know what they are waiting for. I would like to take this opportunity to ask the Constitutional Court to finally decide. They just temporarily suspended the decree, a measure that, as we can see, is being adopted elsewhere in Europe in milder situations than ours,” said the Prime Minister.
“It is high time for the judges to make up their minds. Because at the moment, the government does not know whether it can continue in a certain direction, similar to that of the countries that are much more successful in fighting the epidemic than us – like Austria, for example – or if we should just come to terms with the current situation and let it run its course,” said Prime Minister Janez Janša. He also accused the courts of making the government and experts’ work much harder with some of their decisions, especially ones concerning the decrees that are in place everywhere else. If the trend of interest in vaccination, which arose before the decision of the Constitutional Court, continued, we would currently be at a point, similar to the EU average, the Prime Minister explained, adding that as a result, there would be several hundred fewer patients in hospitals and intensive care units, which would not be at the limit of their capacities. “When we counted the appeals made by the opposition which were in support of the measures, and those that were against them, the ratio was 4 to 96 – four in support of the measures and 96 against them,” Prime Miniter also pointed out for the left-wing opposition, which continues to refuse to take part in the joint fight against the virus, as it prefers to obstruct the government while it is trying to end the epidemic.
The joint show of the public and commercial television has contributed to dividing us even further
“As far as facilities and technology are concerned, Slovenian healthcare has significantly strengthened its capacities since the beginning of this health crisis, but it has not strengthened itself in terms of staff, because you cannot train doctors and nurses in one year, or simply import them,” Prime Minister Janša pointed out, adding that these are the limitations that are currently our biggest threat, as we will likely have to seek help from abroad. He also commented on the joint broadcast of the national television RTV SLO and the largest commercial television station POP TV, which finally happened last week – after a year and a half of the epidemic. “We were happy when the joint broadcast of the largest commercial and the national television was announced,” said Janša, who said that given the reactions to the show, his conclusion is that it only divided us even further. “We do not need such help from the mainstream media in the fight against the epidemic because people are even more divided now, and we are politically separating into two camps in the fight against the virus. I think it is high time we sobered up,” he said firmly. In the end, the SDS MP Bah Žibert called on all citizens to get vaccinated in order to protect themselves and others and help the country get out of this – and not further exhaust the medical staff.
At this session, the National Assembly will also discuss the draft budgets for the years 2022 and 2023, while the interpellations against Minister of Education, Science and Sport Simona Kustec and Minister of Justice Marjan Dikaučič are also on the agenda.
Sara Bertoncelj
