“At these referendums, there are no winners, because people have gained nothing from the results. But many will lose their rights because of the bad government laws. The weakest members of our society will lose the most – the elderly, the disabled, and others who need help from other people, because their long-term care rights are being withdrawn for at least one year,” said MP Zvone Černač, commenting on the results of the referendums. MP Branko Grims said that by voting in favour of the laws, the people voted for higher taxes, a higher mandatory contribution for the national media outlet Radio-Television Slovenia, and gave up the rights they had acquired in the area of long-term care.
With more than 90 percent of the ballots having been counted, we can now be certain that all three laws that the voters were deciding on at Sunday’s referendum will be enacted. On behalf of the proposer, the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS), MPs Branko Grims, Alenka Jeraj and Zvone Černač commented on the results.
According to MP Grims, the people did not know what they were actually voting on because of all the manipulations, because on Sunday, they actually voted in favour of higher taxes, a higher mandatory contribution for the national media outlet RTV Slovenia, which should be plural but will not be anymore, and also gave up their long-term care rights for at least a year and possibly even forever. He cited media manipulation and misleading and misdirected claims as the reason why so many people decided to vote in favour of the three laws coming into force. According to him, the people’s decision will quickly manifest itself in the form of higher taxes for a greedy government and a higher contribution for Radio-Television Slovenia, which will, according to Grims, become totalitarian, and “in the end, people will be deprived of the long-term care rights they already have under the law and those that would have come into force on the 1st of January next year.”
Grims sincerely thanked all those who came to the referendum, and especially those who voted against the three laws and therefore voted for a richer, more prosperous and more plural Slovenia. “In such a situation, one has to ask him or herself what the situation in Slovenia is like, that instead of discussing the substance through the media, they are instead discussing ideology and prejudices, and therefore the people are not actually deciding for what would be better for their wallets,” Grims pointed out, adding that the current situation in Slovenia reminds him of Germany in 1933.
We are getting a political media outlet
MP Alenka Jeraj began by saying that only referendums can prevent bad laws from coming into force. She explained that they wanted to present the weaknesses of all three laws throughout the campaign, which was difficult because there was no public debate on these topics, not enough time, and no expert discussion on the solutions. “The amendment to the Radio-Television Slovenia Act is similar to the one from the 1990s, when chaos reigned.” Every time a right-wing government was in office, there were accusations of censorship, pressure, and other similar things. “This shows that the media space is tilted strongly to the left and pluralism is not allowed,” the MP also said, adding that RTV Slovenia, as a public media outlet, should reflect diversity and represent all segments of Slovenian society. “We all want a high quality and pluralistic Radio-Television Slovenia, and this is something we should all strive for and work towards. First and foremost, this is the task of the management and journalists and all other employees at the public institution in question.”
MP Jeraj also pointed out that with the use of manipulative claims that politics is backing out of the institution, the government policy is actually coming in through the back door, and we are getting a purely political, Golob television station, which will be financed by citizens through an even higher mandatory contribution. “As of today, we are moving far away from democratic standards in the field of the media,” added Alenka Jeraj, who also thanked all of the voters who voted against the three harmful laws.
The weakest members of our society are losing the most
MP Zvone Černač said that there are no winners in this referendum because people have gained nothing from these results. “However, many will lose their rights because of the bad government law.” And according to Černač, the weakest members of our society will lose the most – the elderly, the disabled and others who need help from other people, because their long-term care rights are being withdrawn for at least a year. “There have also been so many lies and manipulations constructed in relation to these laws.” People have even voted to their own detriment because of the scare tactics of the supporters of the laws. Černač pointed out that many people will also lose money as a result of the vote, because higher taxes will be introduced to force people to finance the ministerial chairs of political losers who were not elected to the National Assembly by the voters in April. Finally, Černač added that on Monday, only one day after the referendum, “in a symbolic move, the coalition will adopt the Income Tax Act, which repeals the Income Tax Act of the previous government, which brought gradual tax cuts and wage increases for all.”
Andrej Žitnik
