On Wednesday, Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS) submitted signatures for the start of procedures for calling a legislative referendum on the amendments to the Government of the Republic of Slovenia Act, with which the new government of Robert Golob wants to increase the number of ministries. SDS MP Branko Grims did not want to disclose the exact number of signatures at the recent press conference but said that there were significantly more than they needed – namely, the initiator must get at least 2,500 signatures of voters when submitting an initiative to call a legislative referendum to the National Assembly. “Can you believe that they want to expand this non-operational government even further, to make it even more inoperative,” the MP said, stressing that the response to this must be a resounding no.
The first possible date to start collecting signatures is the 1st of September, as the deadline for collecting signatures cannot be interrupted by the parliamentary holiday. MP Branko Grims believes that it would make sense to hold the referendum together with the local or presidential elections, as, in that case, the implementation of the referendum would not incur any additional costs for the taxpayers. “The Government Act is problematic because it increases the number of ministries, which means three times the additional costs, three times the additional network of employees – this is not just about one single Ficus plant or one single minister,” Grims pointed out, adding that all of this has to be financed by the taxpayers. Meanwhile, activist Vili Kovačič is also collecting signatures for the start of a procedure for calling a legislative referendum on changes to the Government Act.
According to Grims, the decision was mainly made due to the debacle with the shortage of petrol, which was the fault of the current government or its Prime Minister, Robert Golob, who announced a week in advance that he would increase the price of petroleum products by a lot, and that he would abolish the good things that the previous government had done for the people. Of course, both citizens and petrol suppliers reacted to this announcement. “This resulted in a speculative crisis, a speculative shortage of petroleum products and, worst of all, the government has proved to be completely incapable of operating, even in its current composition,” Grims pointed out. Namely, the government did not react to what was going on the previous Sunday at all, when tourists and locals searched for petrol in vain. “Can you believe that they want to expand this non-operational government even further, to make it even more inoperative,” the MP said.
Grims also highlighted the Parsifal Agency’s recent public opinion poll, which showed that as many as 60 percent of the people strongly support the idea of preventing the increase in the number of ministries at a time when Slovenia is slipping into a crisis already. According to Grims, people understand what this is really about and therefore also support the decision of the SDS party to call a legislative referendum. The coalition kept going on and on during its campaign about how it wants to listen to the will of the people, Grims also pointed out, explaining that the will of the people can be expressed directly in referendums. “This is the only real way to express the will of the people,” he added.
Sara Bertoncelj
