In recent days, the Slovenian public was upset by the news that the Ministry of the Interior had sent a letter to administrative units and some of the other ministries with the address where the presidential candidate Nataša Pirc Musar is collecting signatures to submit her candidacy, reports the Slovenian Press Agency. This was followed by accusations that the Ministry was conducting a campaign for this presidential candidate and giving her preferential treatment – among other people, the Resni.ca party (the Truth) criticised the discrimination and demanded that the administrative units and some other public institutions also publish the address for submitting signatures of support for their party’s candidate. Meanwhile, on the day when this was revealed, presidential candidate Dr Nina Krajnik, along with lawyer Dr Peter Jambrek, called an urgent press conference – they believe that this is an unconstitutional and illegal use of state institutions, in favour of the presidential candidate Pirc Musar.
A few days ago, the Ministry of the Interior sent a letter to administrative units and some ministries asking them to publish in a visible place the address where voters can send their signatures of support for the presidential candidate Nataša Pirc Musar. According to the Ministry, they did the same thing for the candidate of the Resni.ca party, Sabina Senčar – but they did not explain that this was done only after her team complained and requested that the same notice be sent for them, as it was for Pirc Musar. The Ministry also explained that this would be done for all the candidates who made the same request – according to them, or Pirc Musar, this is a common practice. “This is the right of every candidate who requests it. My team has formally requested it, while others, apparently, have not. The same rules apply to parliamentary and local elections, too,” Pirc Musar wrote. We have asked the Ministry of the Interior for a list of people who have implemented this “established practice” in the past but have not yet received a reply.
As the Ministry does not have information in advance about who will collect the endorsements and to which address the citizens can send their signatures, in line with the established practice, this information is provided to all stakeholders in the endorsement process upon the explicit request of the candidates. “And as in the past, we also inform all stakeholders in the endorsement process, on a non-discriminatory basis, on equal terms and in accordance with established practice, of the address of the candidates collecting endorsements, when we receive their requests,” the Slovenian Press Agency quoted the Ministry.
Privileging one candidate should lead to a constitutional impeachment
However, members of candidate Dr Nina Krajnik’s team believe that the letters mentioned above constitute a violation of the rule of law. Krajnik believes that “this is retroactively giving the other candidates the same right, but they are doing it to show themselves in a slightly better light,” which in itself is controversial – they only spoke out because they were “caught” in the act. Her supporter, lawyer Dr Peter Jambrek, however, believes that this is a case of privileging one candidate and that it was to be expected that Minister of the Interior Tatjana Bobnar would be subject to a constitutional impeachment. According to him, this is an unconstitutional and illegal use of state institutions.
When asked whether she herself would make the same request as Pirc Musar, Krajnik said that her team would give it a lot of thought before deciding. The publication of the address would also make it a lot easier for her to collect signatures of support, but she believes it would be “a violation of standards, ethical principles and so on.” Meanwhile, her team has called on public institutions to help all candidates collect signatures. However, the request described above will certainly not be made by Dr Anže Logar, who collected 12 thousand signatures of support for his candidacy in only three days and has now finished collecting signatures.
Sara Bertoncelj
