“These are just excuses and justifications for not implementing the law, which was adopted on the 9th of December last year, with a one-year delay. There was more than enough time to prepare everything necessary for the implementation of the law. These are deliberate actions against the elderly and against those who need the care of others,” Slovenian Democratic Party MP Zvone Černač believes.
At a recent press conference, the leader of the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS) parliamentary group, Zvone Černač, spoke about the signatures submitted by the SDS party to launch the procedures to call a legislative referendum on the amendments to the Long-Term Care Act. Namely, the SDS party recently submitted 4595 signatures to launch procedures to call the referendum in question, on the government’s amendment to the Long Term Care Act. They believe that the coalition’s plan to start implementing the law with a one-year delay is substantively unfounded and harmful.
The government has accused both the amendment and the current opposition (former coalition) of several things, the Slovenian Press Agency reports. Among other things, the Freedom Movement party (Gibanje Svoboda) believes that the SDS party has “found a new hobby – in addition to the manipulations they are skilled in, they have started working on something else as well – the tabling of referendum petitions.” The Social Democrats party (SD) understands the move of the largest opposition party as “delaying the procedures,” while the extreme Left party (Levica) accuses the largest opposition party of “not taking into account the needs of the elderly at all,” adding that “the law, which was written by the SDS party, is aimed at the privatisation of elderly care and its financing is being pushed to the budget.”
MP Černač responded to the accusations of members of the ruling parties: “These are just excuses and justifications for not implementing the law, which was adopted on the 9th of December last year, with a one-year delay. There was more than enough time available to prepare everything necessary for the law to enter into force on the 1st of January next year, which is four months from now.” The ruling coalition’s comments are just excuses, because they do not want to enforce this law, and they do not want to give the people these benefits it offers, especially the elderly and those who cannot look after themselves. This is a law that brings these benefits, which the coalition does not want to grant to the people.
The goal of Golob’s government has never been to implement the law that solves the plight of the elderly
Even then, on the 9th of December, everyone from the then-coalition (many of whom are now members of the coalition) voted against the law. “It would be illusory to expect them to change their minds now. Their aim is only to delay this so that the law would never actually be implemented.” They are basically acting against the elderly and against those who need the care of others. They have delayed the matter for a year now, just to get it off the agenda. It was never their goal to actually implement the act. “The law is for the benefit of the people, and since this prolongation could not be stopped by a parliamentary procedure, the only way is for the people to decide whether they want to help provide these services for the elderly or not.”
It is up to the people whether they go to the referendum and support the issue with their signatures, and in the second step, whether they vote in favour or against the amendment to the act, which is to the detriment of the people. “What they will do is up to the people.” Instead of the new government doing everything in its power to implement the law that was adopted last year, the new government is actively trying to prevent it from going into force and not make it a reality. The one-year delay was adopted with this intention, and they are working against the people. One of the parts is the care for elderly people, which, because it is important, was already adopted by the previous government in April.
Does the government want to allocate part of the funding to the parapolitical “civil society”?
Many people have died when they were injured and did not have anyone to ask for help. And those who are offered this service will receive timely care. “There is no reason why this enforcement should be delayed.” It may be partly to divert some of the funds to non-governmental organisations. If there is no need to provide resources for the elderly and the vulnerable members of society, then there is money left over for other things. “Otherwise, this is a case of someone not wanting to regulate this area in a proper way, just as they did not put one single bed in the nursing homes between the years 2013 and 2019. Now 18 new nursing homes are being built in two years, which is about 1,100 new beds.”
“Some of us work for the people, while others just ‘blabber’ about how they work for the people, when, in fact, the opposite is true.” And as for the accusations of supporting “privatisation,” Černač responded that these are “left-wing platitudes” that will ultimately come back to hurt the leftists. However, if the government does not take appropriate measures, the expenses that people need to pay for care will be higher as of the 1st of September – which actually has nothing to do with the law in question. Namely, article 130 in the law is the same as in the prolongation amendment – because they just prolonged its implementation for one year.
Domen Mezeg
