Last week, the future coalition confirmed the coalition agreement and the ministerial candidates from individual parties, and the leaders of the parliamentary groups will hold consultations with the President of the Republic, Borut Pahor, today – on who should be given the mandate to form the government, reports the Slovenian Press Agency. The first person to visit the President will be the interim leader of the Freedom Movement (Gibanje svoboda) parliamentary group and candidate for the position of Prime Minister, Robert Golob. Pahor has already announced that he will not delay the process of appointing a candidate if Golob receives majority support from all leaders of parliamentary groups. In that case, Pahor will sign the letter for the Speaker of the National Assembly, and in the next session of the National Assembly, the members will decide on the election of the Prime Minister.
Following Robert Golob, the other leaders of parliamentary groups will hold consultations with President Borut Pahor. Jelka Godec will take over the leadership of the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS) parliamentary group, while Jožef Hortvat will continue leading the New Slovenia (Nova Slovenija) parliamentary group for the time being, and Janez Cigler Kralj will take over the position after the handover of activities at the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, which he is currently heading. Jani Prednik will take over the leadership of the Social Democrats (Socialni demokrati – SD) parliamentary group, while Matej T. Vatovec will continue to lead the parliamentary group of the Left party (Levica). The parliamentary group of national minorities will continue to be led by the representative of the Italian minority, Felice Žiža. However, both Žiža, as well as the representative of the Hungarian minority, Ferenc Horvath, are invited to the consultation with the President of the Republic, reported the Slovenian Press Agency.
The Slovenian Constitution stipulates three rounds for the deciding on a new Prime Minister – in the first round, the candidate can be nominated by the President of the Republic, and in the second round, by parliamentary groups or at least ten deputies. In the third round, the required majority for the election of a Prime Minister is reduced: in the first and second rounds, at least 46 votes are needed for the candidate to be elected, and in the third round, the candidate only needs the relative majority. If the Prime Minister is still not elected in the third round, the President of the Republic must dissolve the National Assembly and call new elections. However, no problems are expected to arise this time, as Golob has enough support or votes in parliament to form a government. “By the way, the Slovenian transition reached a new achievement today at the meeting with Borut Pahor: Golob, as the leader of the Freedom Movement parliamentary group, will nominate himself for the new Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia. This will happen for the first time, but it makes sense, since this is the time of freedom,” journalist Bojan Požar commented on the strange situation on Twitter.
The SDS party suggests that the future government should reconsider the Government Act that was submitted
After a consultation with the President of the Republic, Borut Pahor, the leader of the SDS parliamentary group, Jelka Godec, said in a statement for the media that Robert Golob had delivered signatures of support from 53 deputies to the President. The Freedom Movement, SD party and Left party have a majority in the National Assembly, she admitted, but the SDS party will not support Golob. According to the Slovenian Press Agency, the New Slovenia party will do the same. Godec added that the SDS party was not surprised by the expressed majority of the future coalition, as this was expected. Given the number of coalition parties, Godec described the announced intention of expanding the number of ministers in the future government as nonsense. Thus, the SDS party suggested that the future government use some rational thinking, as they believe that the expansion of the government will not contribute to the continuation of the trend established by the current government. “The expansion of ministerial posts will not help Slovenia to advance on the scale of various international organisations and to further increase economic growth and reduce public debt,” she said. Godec also mentioned that on Tuesday, the leaders of the parliamentary groups will hold a consultation in the National Assembly, at which they will determine the division of seats in the working bodies of the National Assembly. The SDS party has six presidential seats guaranteed and will come to consultations with certain demands. “After that, the whole thing is a matter of procedure and how things will go, but we will certainly not allow working bodies which are not in accordance with the rules of procedure of the National Assembly or the legislation to be convened or formed,” she added.
Golob intends to replace everyone in one go
The web portal Požareport recently revealed “Golob’s silent plan of how he will replace everyone in one go – even the cleaners of the current Prime Minister Janez Janša – which Golob himself even announced on the show Odmevi. “This is a special law on the merger of the Slovenian Sovereign Holding and the Bank Assets Management Company, where the transitional provisions themselves state that the enactment of this law automatically triggers the fall of all management bodies of the Slovenian Sovereign Holding and the Bank Assets Management Company,” Požar explained, whose sources reveal that Golob’s law would result in an automatic resignation of the entire Supervisory Board and the Management Board of the Slovenian Sovereign Holding, and at the Bank Assets Management Company, it would mean the resignation of the Management Board and all of the executive directors. The adoption of the law is expected to be followed by assemblies of individual state-owned companies, where the supervisory boards or at least the majority of supervisors will be dismissed en masse. Journalist Požar also predicted that the mainstream media will, in all probability, accuse those who will receive high severance pay of being appointed because of politics.
Sara Bertoncelj
