Alenka Bratušek Party

Ljubljana – The Pensioners’ Party (DeSUS) will hold a congress on Saturday to elect what will be its third leadership in a year and a half. Last December, after less than a year under Aleksandra Pivec, the party again elected its ex-boss Karl Erjavec, but he stepped down in March. There are three contenders now.

Ljubljana – The leader of the Social Democrats (SD) Tanja Fajon has proposed that four opposition parties forge a closer partnership, starting with a “partnership discussion” that would chart the way forward.

Ljubljana – The parliamentary Culture Committee reviewed the report of the Broadcasting Council for the past year at a session on Monday, including the council’s recommendation to set down sanctions for fake news in a law. Some of the participants in the debate maintained that would be in contravention of the freedom of speech.

Ljubljana – Speaker Igor Zorčič will not call a plenary session to debate the opposition Left’s party programme after the coalition Democrats (SDS) and New Slovenia (NSi) requested this last week, arguing the programme contained elements suggesting the Left could act against the country’s constitutional order.

Ljubljana – The National Assembly passed in a unanimous vote on Friday amendments to the penal code that redefine sexual consent in line with the concept that only yes means yes. MPs said during the debate that the credit should go to NGOs, which mobilised the public to create a genuine social movement.

Ljubljana – The National Assembly rejected in a 46:43 vote on Tuesday a proposal from the centre-left opposition for a consultative referendum on the government-sponsored bill on the national Demographic Fund.

The bill was adopted by the government last autumn and its passed a second reading in the National Assembly in March.

Ljubljana – Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Ljubljana on Friday protesting against the government’s actions and calling for an early election. The rally included various groups and movements and was supported by trade unions and part of the opposition. PM Janez Janša said spreading Covid-19 with unregistered mass rallies was a crime.

Ljubljana – Igor Zorčič remains speaker as only 45 MPs voted to dismiss him in a secret ballot Friday, one short of the needed majority, just like in the first attempt on 30 March after he quit the coalition Modern Centre Party (SMC). Two ballots were invalid while no MP voted against as the centre-left opposition and unaffiliated MPs obstructed the vote.

After Slovenian MPs failed to approve the agenda for a week-long parliamentary session on Monday, the opposition renewed its call for early elections.

"Calls for parliamentary elections will be more frequent and louder," political scientist Alem Maksuti told BIRN.

Ljubljana – A key multi-day plenary at which parliament was to vote on the opposition-sponsored motion to impeach Prime Minister Janez Janša and the coalition’s proposal to dismiss Speaker Igor Zorčič was aborted on Monday after MPs failed to endorse the agenda in the first such instance to date. Each side then filed for an emergency session instead.