National Councillor Tomaž Horvat, who submitted a proposal to the government at the recent extraordinary session of the National Council to buy a firefighting plane, has already collected more than 5,600 signatures on his petition in support of the proposal in question, the Social Democrats party’s official website reported. The petition is extremely stupid, as two multi-purpose firefighting planes have already been ordered by the Janša government, and the Social Democrats are a government party and could have made such a purchase without the petition.
The Social Democrats wanted to get their part of the political bounty after the recent tragic fires in the Kras region. The first to do so was the Social Democrats (SD) President and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tanja Fajon, who flew in for a photoshoot after the tragedy. Then, in a highly unusual move, Tomaž Horvat, a National Councillor and influential member of the SD party from Nova Gorica, launched an initiative for the purchase of the said aircrafts.
As if the purchase of the aircraft had not already been carried out by the previous Janša government, or rather, had been ordered by it, and we are not waiting for it to be delivered. However, Horvat believes that the recent fire in the Kras region has demonstrated the necessity that, especially in regions more threatened by fires, such as the Goriška region, should also have a firefighting aircraft available.
The petition is actually grossly misleading
At last week’s extraordinary session of the National Council, National Councillor Tomaž Horvat called on the Government of the Republic of Slovenia and the Ministry of Defence to immediately proceed with the procurement and purchase of a firefighting aircraft. He also launched an online petition, which was signed by 5691 supporters in just a few days. It is highly unusual for a petition to be launched by a representative of a government party and then further promoted by the SD party on its platforms and social networks. In fact, even without the petition, the Social Democrats would have had no problem at all proposing and implementing the purchase of any one or more aircrafts, as they are part of the government, after all. A problem could only arise if any of the government parties opposed such a purchase. According to the behind-the-scenes rumours from the government, there are already certain disagreements arising between the Social Democrats ministers and the Prime Minister.
Sara Kovač
