Slovenian Democratic Party Bulletin (May 2011)

05.05.2011
Given the current (April and May 2011) political and economic situation in the Republic of Slovenia, we would like to present our views about some of the most important issues and our expectations concerning the future developments.

Political and economic situation

The crisis of the current Government is becoming quite serious. The massive rejection of the law on “Small work” in a referendum has even deepened it. Meanwhile, the number of resigned or sacked ministers has climbed up to 7. Minister responsible for Regional policies, Ms. Duša Trobec Bučan representing Slovenian Democratic Party of Pensioners (DeSUS) who after a couple of months in office, revealed corruption in the Cabinet and in the Ministry, associated her departure with the lack of support from the Prime Minister. Following this revelation, her Party announced its departure from the Coalition Government. At the same time, another Minister who happens to be the President of the second strongest Party (Zares) in the Coalition, also offered resignation. The leadership of the opposition (SDS President Janša and parliamentary faction leader Tanko) proposed early elections in a letter to Prime Minister Pahor, an idea picked up also by the President of the Republic Türk.

While in 2007, Slovenia, governed by the SDS, could proudly claim to have a balanced budget, the Social Democratic successors - in a time of crisis - resorted to political rewards and egalitarian policies that produced substantial deficit. The budgetary deficit increased for almost 2 billion € and is slowly moving towards 6% of GDP.

Results of public opinion pools

The trend of decreasing support to the current left wing Slovenian government is even more obvious after the referendum on so-called ‘“Small work”. The government lead by the Social Democrats Prime Minister Mr. Borut Pahor faces its lowest support since the beginning of the mandate. It is supported by 14,1% of the electorate only. Among parties on Slovenian political scene SDS strongly holds the highest support, it is supported by 28% of defined voters. The runner up position is in the hands of the Social Democrats, 16% of defined voters would vote for them. In third place there is DeSUS (Slovenian Democratic Party of Pensioners), which gained around 3% during the last month, with a support of 11% .Slovenian People’s Party (SLS) would get 6 %, the Slovenian National Party (SNS) 6 % and the Liberal Democracy of Slovenia (LDS) 5 % at parliamentary elections, if they were held last month. New Slovenia (NSi) is still pending on the edge with 4 % of support. To sum up, the SDS has more support than the coalition trio together.

State celebration characterized by Communist symbols

On April 26, the President gave a speech at a celebration of the 70th anniversary of The Day of Resistance. Actually, the resistance organization changed its name from Anti-Imperialist Front to Liberation Front only after Hitler’s attack on Soviet Union in June 1941. The speech consisted of archaic rhetoric. It seems that early elections would be the only solution to the present crisis.

Public opinion polls show that the left-wing government will lose 3 referendums in June

Three referendums are scheduled in Slovenia for 5 June 2011. They were proposed by Trade Unions (a reform of the pension system) and (other two) the opposition parties. One dossier deals with the grey economy and the illegal forms of work, but the opposition believes it goes too far in limiting activities of the citizens. The legislation proposed by the Government tries to limit small works provided by the members of one’s own family and his neighbours. Instead of boosting the economy by providing new jobs, the actual Government tries to increase public incomes by putting additional pressure on unemployed and those with low incomes. The second dossier deals with the closing of archives of the former Yugoslav secret service (Udba). The closing measures were proposed by the actual Government and adopted in a hurry after the demand of researchers to access those archives. These measures tend to permanently obscure the truth about the criminal past of the secret service and they violate the right of citizens to be objectively informed about the past. The third dossier proposes a reform of the pension system. The Trade Unions strongly opposes the reform. Although the reform is needed, the actual Government should primarily take care of the extremely bad economic situation in Slovenia and this way increase the budgetary incomes. Public opinion polls show that the left-wing government will lose all 3 referendums scheduled for 5 June 2011.

SDS in the European Parliament

Education and Culture Committee vote in favour of MEP Zver's »Youth on the Move« report

During it's last meeting the European Parliament's Education and Culture Committee adopted the so-called “Youth on the Move” report with 27 votes in favour, 2 abstentions and no vote against. Parliament’s rapporteur, MEP Milan ZVER, was successful in getting MEPs to agree on the new framework for increasing student mobility, improving European education systems, preparing European youth for entering the labour market and thus achieving goals of the Europe 2020 strategy. Out of 241 amendments Committee voted in line with the position of the rapportuer, MEP Zver, on more than 230. Parliament is due to adopt the final report in plenary in May 2011.

Successful public hearing in the European Parliament on the generational renewal in agriculture

4,5 million of European farmers are expected to retire in the next 10 years. Who will replace them? MEP Milan Zver and CEJA, the European Council of Young Farmers, organized a public hearing in the European Parliament that tried to answer this question. Among the speakers of the hearing there were the president of the EPP group in the EP and former Vice-President of CEJA, Joseph Daul, Austrian MEP Elisabeth Köstinger and CEJA President, Joris Baecke. Together with young farmers’ representatives from Slovenia, Ireland and France they debated the future of European farming. The event was attended by many representatives of the European institutions and more than 100 young farmers from 7 EU member states.