MP Sukič has not publicly apologised to the pensioners, and what is more, she has even repeated her lies. These lies were also supported by coalition MPs. Namely, in a secret ballot, MPs rejected the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS) proposal to dismiss the Left party (Levica) MP Nataša Sukič from her post as Vice-Speaker of the National Assembly, with 28 votes in favour to 51 against. Three ballots were invalid.
Former minister and current SDS MP Zvonko Černač began by saying that the Slovenian Democratic Party parliamentary group had called on the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, Nataša Sukič, to apologise for the lies and manipulations she had repeatedly made regarding pensioners’ pensions. According to Černač, she should apologise to them, the pensioners. She did not do so; on the contrary, she continued with her manipulations. So, in order to protect and preserve at least the minimal level of integrity in the National Assembly, the Slovenian Democratic Party parliamentary group tabled a motion for her dismissal.
As Černač pointed out, in the last month, the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, Nataša Sukič, has told a series of lies about the pension reform, which was adopted 12 years ago – during the period of the government led by Mr Janša, which halted the long-standing decline in the assessment percentage for calculating pensions.
“The statements made by one of the highest representatives of the legislative branch of power were not only untrue, but the repeated lies and manipulative statements made by the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, Nataša Sukič, were clearly not made by mistake or out of ignorance, but in order to manipulate pensioners. They were made in order to passivise the electorate in collecting signatures for a subsequent legislative referendum on privileged pensions for individuals of between 2,000 and 3,000 euros. They also served as a manipulation in support of the Golob government’s pension reform.”
The lie was repeated several times
Černač then also explained the details of the lie. In the last month, the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, Nataša Sukič, has repeated the lie over and over that in 2012, by lowering the vesting percentage from 76.5 percent to a shameful, as she put it, 57.25 percent, pensions plummeted.
On the 7th of February, she said on the show Odmevi (Echoes):
“The Left party is just now preparing a pension reform which will substantially correct the pension assessment, which has been brought down the most steeply, yes, by Minister Vizjak under the Janša government – from 76.5 to a shameful 57.25 percent, and from then onward, we have an army of poor pensioners.”
Sukić’s lie has been pointed out by many organisations
“This is a simple, verifiable lie. The pension reform of December 2012 did not lower pensions, on the contrary, it stopped their long-standing decline. It was adopted unanimously, with all coalition and opposition MPs present voting in favour, with no votes against, and no abstentions. It was applauded by all the social partners, the trade unions, the economy and the Union of Pensioners’ Associations of Slovenia (Zveza društev upokojencev Slovenije). Do you really think, ladies and gentlemen, that the opposition at the time would not have voted against it if what the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, Nataša Sukič, is deliberately lying about were true, and do you really think that all the aforementioned social partners would not have initiated a referendum on this law?” asked Černač.
What was the reason for the lie?
Černač tried to explain what was the internal logic behind the lie of the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly.
The Golob government is preparing a new pension reform, under which all 40 or 35 years of service would be taken into account when calculating pensions, not just the 24 most favourable years, as is the case today. It is absolutely clear that, without a significant increase in the vesting percentage, the pensions of all future pensioners will be reduced, and therefore, these lies and manipulations by the Vice-President of the National Assembly, Nataša Sukič, that the second Janša government reduced pensions, which is a lie, and that the current government will correct them by raising the vesting percentage, are a despicable manipulation of future pensioners.
Janša’s pension reform halted the decline in pensions
The December 2012 pension reform halted a years-long decline in the vesting percentage, which had fallen by 7.5 percent by 2012 and would fall by a further 5.5 percent by 2021, explained MP Černač. As the gross basis for calculation has changed to a net basis, the assessment coefficient for calculating the pension has been mathematically recalculated. Today, it is 63.5 percent, which means that it is still slightly higher than the one that was in force before 2000. Recalculated, according to Černač, the old coefficient would be 86.7 percent today, whereas it was 85 percent then. “So, there has been no reduction in pensions. On the contrary, their long-standing decline was halted.”
The SDS party parliamentary group called on the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, Nataša Sukič, to apologise for her statements and manipulations. “She should apologise to current and future pensioners for lying and manipulating them. Not only has she not apologised, but after we in the Slovenian Democratic Party parliamentary group submitted a request for her dismissal and after public television published an article about the fact that pensions were not reduced in 2012, but on the contrary, after many years, their further decline was stopped and prevented, she once again pointed the finger at the Slovenian Democratic Party, and especially at our President, with new lies and unfounded accusations,” said MP Černač.
Finally, he added that the SDS party parliamentary group was proposing the dismissal of the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, Nataša Sukič, because she sits at the top of the legislative branch of power. In this position, she is supposed to be the representative of all the people, but she is clearly deliberately lying to and manipulating them. The credibility of the Deputy Speaker, Nataša Sukič, has already been severely undermined by her past manipulations, lies and biased behaviour, and she is casting a bad light on the entire Parliament with her latest lies and manipulations.
Sukič feigned ignorance
Sukič did not discuss her lie much. What is more, she repeated the lie. She said that today, Janša – together with Rupar, the leader of the pensioners’ protests – is chanting in the streets and squares at their truth rallies: “Give pensioners higher pensions,” even though it is he who has created poverty among them in the past.
She proclaimed that the fact that the SDS party had caught her in a lie was actually a “valorisation hocus pocus, the intention of which is to make as few people as possible understand that 57.25 percent equals 78 percent.”
“This interpellation is happening today because I told the plain truth. That the Pension and Disability Insurance Act 2 (ZPIZ-2), which was adopted by the government of Janez Janša in December 2012, set the assessment at 57.25 percent, which, if we ignore the minimum rounding up, is the lowest assessment at which anyone has ever retired in the history of Slovenia. It is true. The Act in question stopped the further decline under the Pension and Disability Insurance Act 1 (ZPIZ-1) assessment, but the fact is irrefutable: this is the lowest assessment percentage in the history of this country,” she said.
So Sukič is not giving up – despite the fact that she has been told by experts in the field that she is lying, she still insists on her interpretation that the Janša government has reduced pensions for pensioners.
She even accused Janša of having overturned the referendum in 2011, which would mean that the pension assessment would have been 2 percent higher than it was at the time of Janša’s rescue freeze, even though it is clear that that referendum was, in fact, a referendum against the Pahor government, while at the same time, it would have actually lowered pensions.
She even accused the SDS party of being misleading with its “convoluted valorisation formulas that only financial experts really understand”, while at the same time wanting to shift the conversation to the Public Finance Balancing Act, instead of the Pension and Disability Insurance Act 2, which she was talking about (the Public Finance Balancing Act did not change the vesting percentages!).
And she then added even more lies! She claimed that the previous government “betrayed and sacrificed pensioners” in exchange for funding from the Recovery and Resilience Fund at the dictation of the European Commission on the basis of its erroneous assessments, and that the current Minister of Labour, Mesec, negotiated with the European Commission for a year to put an end to this brutality and still secure funding from the Fund… Of course, it is not entirely clear to anyone what she was talking about. The funds for resilience and recovery were provided by the Janša Government, and the Golob Government is still unable to draw them down today.
MP Hoivik: Let’s stop this madness
MP Hoivik started with an old Slovenian proverb when speaking about the Vice-Speaker of the National Assembly: “Lies have short legs.”
He pointed out that she had lied to the Slovenian public. Worst of all, she lied to more than 645,000 pensioners.
“The Vice-Speaker of the National Assembly did not stop there, and on the same day, she wrote on one of the social networks, and I quote: ‘From 76.5 to 56.25, Vizjak from SDS reduced the pension assessment and created poor pensioners. Check it out!”
As he said, her words were reviewed and even debunked by the depoliticised national media outlet, Radio-Television Slovenia. They were checked by the mathematical calculations of the then-full professor at the Faculty of Economics, Dr Maks Tajnikar. He said of this calculation in the Pension and Disability Insurance Act 2, and I quote, “It was neutral in itself and what the Left actually accuses the SDS of doing for that period is not true, it is certainly not true.”
MP Hoivik then pointed out that this same law was approved in December 2012 with a yes vote – also from the current President of the Social Democrats party (Socialni demokrati – SD), the then-MP Matjaž Han, the current Freedom Movement party (Gibanje Svoboda) MP Tamara Vonta and the former President of the Party of Alenka Bratušek, now Minister of Infrastructure – Alenka Bratušek.
He then noted that Nataša Sukič had repeated her lie a third time. On the 19th of February, she told RTV Slovenia, and I quote, “They should apologise to the pensioners for the immeasurable injustice that Janez Janša has done to them with the lowest pension assessment in the history of the Republic of Slovenia, at a shameful rate of just over 57 percent.”
MP Hoivik believes that the immeasurable injustice here is being caused by the very MP of the Left party and Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly who, with the votes of the members of the government coalition, has enacted a law that broadens the range of beneficiaries of exceptional pension supplements in the field of the arts, while the long-awaited pension reform is still being prepared, which is urgently needed to ensure that Slovenia receives more than 1 billion euros in funding from the European Mechanism for Recovery and Resilience.
I. K.
