Once again, democratic debate was trampled on in the National Assembly, as the Chair of the Committee on Health, Tamara Kozlovič (the Freedom Movement party – Gibanje Svoboda), closed the debate before the rest of the participants had a chance to take their turn, and the opposition MPs from the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS) and the New Slovenia party (Nova Slovenija – NSi) left the meeting in protest. The SDS party also announced that it would resubmit the motion.
On Friday, the National Assembly’s Committee on Health rejected the SDS party’s amendment to the law on alcohol restrictions. Only the Freedom Movement and the Social Democrats (Socialni demokrati – SD) MPs got the chance to talk about the proposal, which was rejected unanimously, with nine votes against it. The sitting of the Committee on Health resumed on Friday after Wednesday’s adjournment.
At the start of Friday’s sitting, Committee Chair Tamara Kozlovič (the Freedom Movement) explained that several Members had registered to take part in the debate at the time of the adjournment, but that they were absent at Friday’s session. The floor was thus given to SDS MP Žan Mahnič as the representative of the sponsors of the bill, and to the State Secretary at the Ministry of Health, Denis Kordež, who responded to some of Mahnič’s criticisms. MP Kozlovič then declared the debate closed and said that the vote would follow.
Debate was simply closed
This was strongly opposed by opposition MPs from the SDS and NSi parties, who still wanted to debate about the proposal. Andrej Poglajen, an SDS MP, accused Tamara Kozlovič of breaking the Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly. He said that the Rules of Procedure allowed Members to register their contributions to the debate. “Nowhere does it allow you to close a debate on the basis of the number of people who registered for the first part of the sitting, which happened on the previous day,” he stressed.
Kozlovič, despite opposition accusations, started the process for the vote. Mahnič therefore announced that the SDS party would table the bill again. SDS and NSi MPs then left the Health Committee meeting amid loud objections. “Shame on you. The majority is abusing the minority,” NSi MP Aleksander Reberšek was heard saying as he left the Chamber.
Kozlovič ordered a recess as the Committee had not reached a quorum following a filibuster by opposition MPs. After the break, SD MP Jonas Žnidaršič joined the meeting, and a quorum of the Committee then rejected both the proposal and the SDS amendments to the bill.
The SDS proposal aims to allow the sale of alcohol at events happening on school premises when there are no classes or extracurricular activities happening. MP Mahnič also pointed out on Friday that in some places, the school playground is the only place in the local community where sporting events, tournaments and even firefighters’ parties can be organised. Under the current law, the serving of alcohol is not allowed in these cases, but it still happens, he said. That is why the SDS party has proposed a change in the law. Mahnič said some mayors and lawyers are looking for a way to regulate the issue, namely through municipal ordinances. “Such playgrounds and sports gyms will simply be defined differently by decree. And these will be facilities that are originally intended for other things, and schools will have contracts for free use of these facilities,” he illustrated.
As a debate was not allowed in the National Assembly, MPs took to the social network X to post their criticism.
Namely, SDS MP Žan Mahnič wrote: “Today’s fascist ban on the debate in the Health Committee by the juvenile Freedom Movement chairwoman Tamara Kozlovič will result in the SDS party parliamentary group’s resubmitting of the Alcohol Restriction Bill with a request for a general debate once the current procedure is concluded.” In response, MP Poglajen wrote: “The Freedom Movement is synonymous with the violation of democratic principles. The debates of the deputies are one of the foundations of the consideration of legislative procedures in the National Assembly. Violating the Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly in order to prevent Members from debating is another step towards authoritarianism. And then these same coalition MPs claim that there will be no censorship with the new media law, despite the fact that their staff will be working under the guise of inspectors to monitor what anyone writes on social networks.”
C. Š.
