STA, 11 December 2018 - The three right-leaning opposition parties preparing an impeachment against Prime Minister Marjan Šarec have decided to wait with the motion until the parliament discusses Democrats-sponsored legislative changes aiming to raise state funding for private schools to 100%.
The Democrats (SDS), New Slovenia (NSi) and the National Party (SNS) were planning to file the impeachment motion today, but the NSi is to supply the needed signatures when the legislative changes make the parliamentary agenda later this month.
The parties decided to impeach Šarec after his government said it did not support the SDS-sponsored changes in late November.
While the government implied the changes failed to tackle the funding issues comprehensively, the SDS says that the changes would implement the 2014 decision by the Constitutional Court that ordered Slovenia to raise funding for private schools teaching public curricula from 85% to 100%.
Education and Sport Minister Jernej Pikalo said today that this was a political issue and a decision that should be made by the coalition.
"One of the future coalition summits will have to deal with this," said the minister who expects long coordination due to the balance of power in the National Assembly. At this moment "nobody has enough votes to go either way".
He said that his position on the issue was clear: private is only for some, while public is for everybody. He underlined however that every decision by the Constitutional Court must be addressed: "These are the fundamentals of the rule of law."
Most coalition partners meanwhile believe that impeachment would be a premature step. However, Pensioners' Party (DeSUS) MP Jurij Lep said that the motion was legitimate and he has little doubt that it will be filed.
While the prime minister's office has not responded to the news of impeachment being planned, his party said that coalition partners would discuss the motion.
Brane Golubovič of the Marjan Šarec List (LMŠ) was critical of the opposition, saying that he would have expected them to seek dialogue about the changes before deciding for impeachment.
He also said that the coalition was very busy at the moment with the 2019 supplementary budget. "Without it neither public nor private schools will get funds next year".
Matjaž Han, the Social Democrats (SD) deputy group head, commented that the opposition had run out of ideas, adding that previous Education Minister Maja Makovec Brenčič faced a no-confidence vote due to the same changes.
"This is about more than just EUR 300,000, it's a symbolic move," Han said about the changes that would raise funding for private schools.
The junior opposition Modern Centre Party (SMC) meanwhile underlined that a Constitutional Court decision must be respected.
The Left, the minority government's partner in the opposition, is against additional funds for private schools. In fact they want to change the Constitution so as to restrict state funding only to public schools.
