Janša says SDS will not allow soloing in coalition any longer

Ljubljana – Democrats (SDS) president and Prime Minister Janez Janša has announced in a letter to the party membership that the party will work in realising the commitments from the coalition agreement, and he expects the same from partners. The mechanism of coordination does not allow soloing and the SDS will not allow this, he added.

“Once a decision has been adopted, bringing it down or eroding it with help of opposition votes in the National Assembly is not acceptable. The SDS will not allow this any more,” the letter says.

Janša assessed the first year of the term of what is his third government as a “year of the most difficult term for any government in Slovenia’s history”.

According to him, it is comparable only to 1991 and the efforts of the independence-era government around the DEMOS coalition, with one major difference.

“It was possible back then to conclude an agreement with the leftist opposition at least occasionally and achieve political unity for the sake of the homeland,” while today the majority of the opposition is destructive like nowhere in Europe.

“The acts of the Social Democrats, Marjan šarec List (LMŠ), Alenka Bratušek Party (SAB) and Left in this time of great distress are nothing but hateful towards the homeland, nation and state,” he said.

According to Janša, in recent weeks intolerant individuals have been putting stickers on bars and other places saying that members of the SDS are prohibited from entering public spaces.

“They copy the National Socialist Brownshirts from the 1930s, who first announced the same bans against Jews, only to later send them to death camps. We call on the leftist fascists who do this today in Slovenia and those who are making this happen to sober up as soon as possible.”

The prime minister added that no one would strip members and supporters of the SDS, or any other in the democratic Slovenia for that matter, of constitutional rights unpunished.

Janša furthermore noted that the second year of the government would be marked by the “end of the battle with the epidemic, presidency of the EU Council in a critical moment for Europe and realising the key commitments from the coalition agreement.”

Slovenia will also co-chair the Conference on the Future of Europe. “We still see the future of Europe like … when we decided to enter the Union in a referendum. We will resolutely oppose attempts of shaping the EU unmder the model of the former Yugoslavia.”

Turning to the coalition, he said that “we have assumed responsibilities in the government and the National Assembly relative to teh number of MP votes that secure a majority for the government. Changed support lead to changed share of rights and responsibilities.”

Janša added that the “SDS will continue to responsibly perform its role of the strongest political force in Slovenia, of key importance for stability and development of the country.”

The prime minister also talked for the Planet TV station on Saturday evening, saying that the government had a comfortable majority in parliament, but adding that it was not certain that this would stay so.

The government does not count on that it would be impossible to take it down during the EU presidency in the second half of the year, which is why the SDS is, according to him, ready for early election.

He also touched on his tweeting, saying that he Twitter would not be interesting to him if the media space in Slovenia was normal.

“Since the media space is not normal, self-censoring its at work or you have the mainstream media performing the role of extension of political parties, and Twitter is defence from censorship.”

Regarding the debate in the European Parliament on media freedom in Slovenia, he said that “after the solid core of the leftist opposition in Slovenia had suffered defeat in parliament, they tried to transfer this battle to the European arena.”

As for the delay in the appointment of Slovenia’s two members of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, Janša said this was in part also due to Justice Minister Lilijana Kozlovič (of the Modern Centre Party – SMC) being weak in managing her department.

Janša has also reproached the Constitutional Court for being too slow, as it is “scandalous that the Constitutional Court, since it has been headed by Rajko Knez, has stayed 12 cases on which it has not decided yet.”

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