From now on, the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS) will boycott the meetings of the Speaker of the National Assembly. If she does not cease her alleged abuses of office and violations of the Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly, they also intend to submit a motion for her dismissal.
“You have not been doing what the Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly require you to do for some time now. On the contrary. You are completely disregarding the provisions of the Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly, you are completely disregarding the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia, and you are behaving in a haughty, undignified and hostile manner towards individual members of the opposition. As the Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia, you are only the first among equals, and your attitude towards members of the National Assembly should not be discriminatory, insulting and conditional on which parliamentary group an individual member belongs to, ” the SDS MPs wrote.
The largest opposition party added that such abuse of the office of the Speaker of the National Assembly constitutes an unacceptable restriction on the work of Members of the National Assembly and a restriction on the possibility of debate and participation in the legislative process. Her conduct, they wrote, casts a bad light on the entire National Assembly.
“Due to the reasons stated above, the Members of Parliament of the Slovenian Democratic Party will no longer participate in the meetings of the College of the Speaker of the National Assembly until Urška Klakočar Zupančič ceases the above-mentioned conduct, as the SDS party Members of Parliament do not wish to contribute to the legitimacy of the abuse of office and the numerous violations of procedures and the Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly. If Urška Klakočar Zupančič does not cease the above-mentioned conduct, the SDS party parliamentary group will propose her dismissal,” the SDS party wrote in a press release.
Urška Klakočar Zupančič has long been the subject of much criticism from the opposition, with regular breaches of the Rules of Procedure and the introduction of new parliamentary practices. At a recent extraordinary sitting on the allegedly illegal activities of the Ministry of Culture, SDS MP Andrej Hoivik spoke about the SDS party parliamentary group’s motion to dismiss the Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia due to her “threats”. Meira Hot, vice-president of the Social Democrat (Socialni demokrati – SD) coalition party, has now told the newspaper Delo that she will not give her consent to this even if the proposal were to be formally implemented.
In the article, the media outlet also pointed out that the SDS party would need the votes of 46 MPs for the proposal to be implemented. This means that they would need the support of both the New Slovenia party (Nova Slovenija – NSi) and some of the MPs belonging to one of the coalition parties.
While there are supporters of the leading Freedom Movement party (Gibanje Svoboda) who see the Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia as a suitable candidate who could even replace Robert Golob on the Prime Minister’s chair, the opposition is visibly critical of the performance of Klakočar Zupančič as the Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia. The latter has been accused of disregarding the highest law in the country, abusing the Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia, and also abusing her position. In particular, she has been criticised for preventing the establishment of a parliamentary commission of inquiry into Slovenian energy companies, despite the rules of procedure.
The actions of Klakočar Zupančič have also brought her into disfavour with the President of the leading coalition party and the Prime Minister, at a time when the former Minister for Agriculture, Irena Šinko, was suddenly dismissed because she no longer enjoyed his confidence. Golob was not impressed that Zupančič had the audacity to abstain from voting on Šinko’s dismissal. This was followed by her resignation from the position of Vice-President of the Freedom Movement party. Although it has been reported to the public that Zupančič herself made the decision to do so, according to unofficial information, her departure was a consequence of this behaviour.
Ž. N.
