8th National Assembly of Slovenia

Ljubljana – The final pre-election poll by pollster Parisfal brought only minor changes compared to a week ago, still putting the Democrats (SDS) ahead of the Freedom Movement and the SocDems. New Slovenia (NSi), the Left and Connecting Slovenia are projected to make it to parliament too, while the LMŠ, SAB, Resni.ca, Our Land, SNS and DeSUS are not.

Ljubljana – The influence of politics on the media has been a major concern in recent years. The majority of parties quizzed by the STA spoke in favour of depoliticising appointments to the governing bodies of the public broadcaster, albeit to varying degrees and in different ways. When it comes to how to finance the STA, opinions are split.

Ljubljana – Eleven parties contesting the upcoming general election participated in a debate about their arts and culture platforms held by a group of cultural NGOs in the Kino Šiška arts centre on Monday. They focused on four themes: the legislative framework, budget and resource allocation, decentralisation and dialogue.

Ljubljana – MPs endorsed on Tuesday a government-sponsored act that temporarily increases the scope of temporary or casual work available for pensioners to help the labour market recover in the wake of Covid-19. The government says the proposal will help mitigate labour shortages, whereas a part of the opposition believes the solution comes too late.

Ljubljana – The parliament passed the resolution on the 2022-2029 national culture programme on Tuesday. The coalition expressed its support for the strategic document, which comes after the last of its kind in 2017, while the centre-left opposition was against it, saying it does not offer solutions to address the status quo in this field.

Ljubljana – If election was held this Sunday, most respondents in a poll conducted by pollster Parsifal would vote for the ruling Democrats (SDS). The party’s support rose by 3 percentage points to 22.9% in the past month. The Freedom Movement party headed by Robert Golob would come second, on 13.2% support, up by 2.8 percentage points.

Rome – The council of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) discussed on Saturday the merger of the Slovenian coalition Modern Centre Party (SMC) with the Economically Active Party (GAS) into Concretely. It decided that this effectively ended the membership of the SMC in ALDE, and that the new party could again apply for membership.

Ljubljana – The parliamentary Education Committee endorsed late on Friday amendments to the organisation and financing of education act, which would change the composition of school and kindergarten councils to increase the influence of the founder, as members of the opposition obstructed.

Ljubljana – The party of the former Prime Minister Marjan Šarec (LMŠ) is meeting for a virtual congress on Saturday to endorse an election manifesto and a platform in which they refashion their profile as a development-oriented liberal party.

Ljubljana – Marjan Dikaučič remains justice minister after 42 MPs voted in favour on Monday of a motion of no confidence tabled by five opposition deputy groups, four short of the required majority. He was endorsed by 28 MPs as several deputy groups, including the junior coalition NSi, abstained.