Last Monday, the Speaker of the National Assembly, Urška Klakočar Zupančič herself, on behalf of the National Assembly, submitted a request to the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia for the disqualification of a Constitutional Court judge, although she clearly had no legal interest in doing so. A few days later, the government also adopted a motion to disqualify Klemen Jaklič from the decision-making process on the constitutionality of the Radio-Television Slovenia Act, but on Thursday, the Constitutional Court decided to reject the request of the Speaker of the National Assembly. The Constitutional Court also did not disqualify judge Matej Accetto. However, it did disqualify the Constitutional Court judge Neža Kogovšek Šalamon.
At its meeting on the 13th of April 2023, the Constitutional Court, in the course of examining the petition of Dr Peter Gregorčič, decided to reject the request of the Speaker of the National Assembly, Urška Klakočar Zupančič, to disqualify Dr Klemen Jaklič, a judge of the Constitutional Court.
Following the request by Urška Klakočar Zupančič for the disqualification of Constitutional Court Judge Klemen Jaklič, the Constitutional Court requested clarification from the National Assembly as to what gives the Speaker of the Constitutional Court the authority to propose the disqualification of a judge on behalf of the National Assembly. The National Assembly does not have the power to request the disqualification of a Constitutional Court judge, which was pointed out by Constitutional Court judge Rok Svetlič, who gave the Speaker of the National Assembly a three-day deadline to indicate on what legal basis the Speaker is entitled to participate independently in proceedings before the Constitutional Court in cases where the National Assembly is an opposing party.
As the Speaker actually does not have any such powers, this is a typical case of abuse of the office of the Speaker of the National Assembly, implemented in order to assist her government, which has enacted the new Radio-Television Slovenia Act to subordinate a public institution to itself. Now, in order to ensure that Jaklič’s expulsion does not fall through the cracks, the government itself has also proposed his disqualification. But the arguments for his disqualification are likely to be the same as the ones that the Speaker of the National Assembly provided. They have already received one slap on the wrist from the Constitutional Court, and another is on the way.
Sara Kovač
