The National Assembly’s Commission for Public Office and Elections will propose that the Commission of Inquiry into the controversial dealings of the President of the Freedom Movement party (Gibanje Svoboda) be headed by an MP of the very same party. This will be MP Tomaž Lah, who received nine votes of support at the meeting of the Commission for Public Office and Elections, and MP Žan Mahnič of the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS) received six votes of support.
“The Commission cannot be headed by someone who is directly or indirectly involved in the matters that the Commission is considering,” pointed out MP Jelka Godec, leader of the SDS party parliamentary group at the meeting. “If you have a clear conscience and have no problems with what the Commission is supposed to find, let the opposition have the chair,” said SDS MP Rado Gladek, who was nominated by the same Commission to be vice-chair of the Commission of Inquiry in question.
Following the proposal, the Freedom Movement party will have seven members and as many deputies in the Commission of Inquiry, the SDS party will have five, and New Slovenia party (Nova Slovenija – NSi) and the Social Democrats (Socialni demokrati – SD) will have one each. The Left party (Levica) will not take part in the Commission of Inquiry, Slovenian Press Agency (STA) reports.
The National Assembly ordered the establishment of the Commission of Inquiry last week. It had to do so at the request of the National Council. The Commission of Inquiry could have been set up much earlier, but this did not happen because the NSi party did not want to contribute the necessary signatures.
However, even before the establishment of the Commission in question, the Speaker of the National Assembly, Urška Klakočar Zupančič, delayed the establishment by sending the request to the Legislative and Legal Service for a review. She also tabled a bill that would subject the establishment of the National Assembly’s Commission of Inquiry to a constitutional review, should the Legislative and Legal Service find that it was unconstitutional.
Once the establishment of the Commission of Inquiry was ordered, the Freedom Movement MPs had no choice but to try and take over the Commission of Inquiry. This is because it will investigate the controversial dealings (financial draining) of the Gen-I energy company when the said company was headed by Prime Minister Robert Golob, as well as his company Star Solar, which deals almost exclusively with a state-owned company, and the suspected illegal financing of the Freedom Movement.
“The backpack will stay”
Due to the composition of the Commission of Inquiry, there are bound to be doubts about its work – whatever its findings, as well as its effectiveness may be. As the SDS party MP Anja Bah Žibert said, “The backpack will stay.”
Ž. K.
