The deterioration of democracy in the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia continues. MP Andrej Hoivik of the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS) was reprimanded for his discussion points when he drew attention to the mockery of Slovenian pensioners. In the end, though, the Committee approved the referendum on the Law on the supplements to the pensions for outstanding achievements in the arts, which will be held on the 11th of May.
“Outrageous! Not even 10 minutes of today’s meeting of the Committee on Culture have passed, and our MP Andrej Hoivik has already been reprimanded for pointing out that Slovenian pensioners are being made fun of,” wrote the Slovenian Democratic Party parliamentary group.
The incident in question occurred at the 34th extraordinary meeting of the Committee on Culture, where the request for a legislative referendum on the Law on the supplements to the pensions for outstanding achievements in the field of arts was discussed.
As a reminder, this is a law that allows a handful of pensioners, recipients of one of the 23 national arts awards and prizes in the field of arts, to receive exceptional pension supplements that ordinary pensioners, who have not been involved in the arts during their careers, can only dream of.
“Exactly one year ago, the public debate on this law, which grants 0.01 percent of pensioners the extraordinary pension allowance, ended. We are now, in the year 2025, talking about supplements of between 1,200 euros and 2,400 euros every month, or, on average, if a pensioner has 1,200 euros, he or she will receive a 2,000-euro supplement for the highest supplement. If he or she receives half of that, they will receive a 1,000-euro supplement every month for the rest of his or her life,” Hoivik pointed out.
He then recalled that for the majority of pensioners, i.e. the remaining 99.99 percent, the government of Robert Golob is paying a “shameful” 150 euros of the annual allowance, and this allowance will barely cover all the new taxes and contributions introduced by the same government. “We are talking about an increase in the mandatory contribution for the national media outlet, Radio-Television Slovenia (RTVS), we are talking about an increase in the compulsory healthcare tax, which the government said at the beginning that it was abolishing, and last but not least, we are talking about a compulsory long-term care tax, which will also start to be taken from net pensions on the 1st of July this year,” said the SDS MP.
At this point, the Chairwoman of the Committee on Culture, MP Sara Žibrat of the Freedom Movement party (Gibanje Svoboda), interrupted MP Hoivik, saying that he had not kept to the topic of the discussion. This is, of course, not true, as the agenda was the debate on the initiative to call a referendum on pension benefits. She then reprimanded him.
The modus operandi of the Freedom Movement coalition
This, however, is not an isolated incident. Freedom Movement’s representatives, including the Chairwoman of the Committee on Justice, Lena Grgurevič, and the Speaker of the National Assembly, Urška Klakočar Zupančič, often restrict discussions in the temple of democracy. One of the most famous incidents occurred when Grgurevič allowed a vote to be taken on not allowing MP Černač (SDS) to speak anymore.
At Thursday’s meeting, the Committee on Culture adopted a motion for a decree calling a legislative referendum on the Law in question, according to which the referendum question should read: “Are you in favour of implementing the Law on the supplements to the pensions for outstanding achievements in the field of the arts, adopted by the National Assembly at its session on the 30th of January, 2025?”
Tuesday, the 8th of April, has been set as the day on which the referendum will be called, with the deadlines for the tasks necessary for the referendum to be carried out starting on the same day, and the referendum will take place on the 11th of May, according to the draft decree. It will enter into force the day after its publication in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia.
S. K.
