Ljubljana related

26 Apr 2021, 12:52 PM

STA, 26 April 2021 - The government approval rating has hit the lowest level since it took office in March 2020, the most recent Mediana poll shows. While 29.6% of the respondents said they supported the government, as many as 60.9% said the opposite.

Meanwhile, the National Assembly's approval rating is even worse, as 19.7% of the respondents said they supported the Parliament's work and as many as 66.9% were not supportive of its work.

Nevertheless, the senior coalition Democrats (SDS) continue to top the party rankings with 17.6%, a percentage point less than in March.

In second place, the Social Democrats (SD) have shed 0.1 percentage point over March and would get 10.8% of the vote. Support for the Marjan Šarec List (LMŠ) is also down, dropping 1.1 percentage point to 8.5%.

The Left is in place four with 7.9%, a drop of 0.4 percentage points over March, followed by New Slovenia (NSi) with 5.1%, an increase of 0.5 percentage point.

The Alenka Bratušek Party (SAB) saw its support decrease by 1.5 percentage points to 4.3%. Of other parliamentary parties, the National Party (SNS) is at 1.4%, while the Pensioners' Party (DeSUS) saw its support dwindle to 1.1%.

More than 21% of 714 respondents in the poll said they were undecided, while 11.1% said they would not vote for any of the existing options.

The poll shows Health Minister Janez Poklukar topping the politicians' approval rating, followed by President Borut Pahor, who took over MEP Ljudmila Novak, now in place three.

11 Apr 2021, 13:06 PM

STA, 10 April 2021 - Voters in Slovenia are apparently not tired of new faces and parties as more than 64% of the respondents in a public opinion poll conducted by Mediana for the newspaper Delo said the Slovenian political arena needs a new party that would fill the content gap.

Region-wise, the largest share of respondents who are inclined to a new face come from central Slovenia, shows the survey conducted between 6 and 8 April on a sample of 705 adults.

As many as 79% of the respondents from the voter base of the opposition Marjan Šarec List (LMŠ) would like to see a new face come, which confirms that the party of the former prime minister does not have a solid base, Delo said on Saturday.

On the other hand, as many as 56% supporters of the ruling Democrats (SDS) think that new faces and parties are not needed in Slovenia.

Around 23% of the respondents would certainly or probably vote for Aleksandra Pivec, the former president of the Pensioners' Party (DeSUS) who has established a new party called Our Land.

The same share of support goes for MPs Igor Zorčič and Janja Sluga, who recently left the coalition Modern Centre Party (SMC).

According to the poll, the most recognisable face and having the most chance of being voted for is MEP Ljudmila Novak, the former president of the coalition New Slovenia (NSi).

Court of Audit president Tomaž Vesel and former Environment Minister Jure Leben, who is establishing a new party with a green note, are supported by 15% and 16% of the respondents, respectively.

Delo notes that these shares are not directly translatable to actual election results, as the respondent were limited only to a theoretical environment of new parties alone that are not facing a "real" competition.

31 Mar 2021, 12:56 PM

STA, 30 March 2021 - Igor Zorčič remains speaker of the National Assembly. The coalition failed with a motion to dismiss him Tuesday after he quit the Modern Centre Party (SMC) deputy group, as 45 voted in favour of the dismissal, one vote short of the required majority, and two votes were invalid.

The vote came after the opposition LMŠ, SD, Left and SAB, and the new deputy group formed by MPs who have defected from the SMC and DeSUS, walked out of the session and refused to pick up the ballots for the secret vote.

They argued that if the coalition wanted to unseat the speaker, they had to do it themselves. Some also suggested the new situation, in which neither bloc has a clear majority, was an opportunity for a grand bargain on a speaker.

Several opposition MPs framed the motion as an attempt by the government to subjugate the legislative branch.

The coalition, meanwhile, said it was normal that a new speaker be appointed given that the speaker has always come from the ranks of the coalition.

They argued the motion had nothing do to with Zorčič's record as speaker, which both the opposition and coalition said was exemplary, but was rather a reflection of a new balance of power in parliament.

The vote was closely watched as an indication of the governing coalition's strength given that some parties have called for a snap election with the formation of the new faction and the loss of three coalition MPs.

However, Zorčič himself poured cold water on this idea in his first statement after the vote, when he said the outcome "does not forecast that the government will not have a majority in the National Assembly in the future".

The vast majority of legislative motions require only a simple majority and the government has so far been able to carry the majority of laws with the help of the DeSUS and SNS, which are formally opposition parties but often vote with the government.

Danijel Krivec, the chair of the deputy group for the ruling Democrats (SDS), said the unsuccessful attempt did not mean the coalition would not give it another try.

Overall, Zorčič said that "reason prevailed" in the end and that the National Assembly remained independent and "does not let the government dictate" it.

Invoking certain foreign parliaments in which speakers have a different mandate than the other MPs, he said he planned to continue serving independently.

And while he agrees that he was originally appointed as a representative of the second largest coalition party, he said there was no new coalition today with such a party any more.

"We've got an old, disintegrating coalition which lost a party and a second party has only half the members," he said, a situation he described as "unprecedented".

29 Mar 2021, 12:39 PM

STA, 29 March 2021 - The Janez Janša government enjoys support of 31.1% of those polled in the latest poll Mediana carried out for private broadcaster POP TV. This is the lowest in a POP TV poll since the government took office over a year ago and down from 36% in the previous poll, the only time when its approval rating improved.

Over 57% of those polled do not support the government, whereas 11.3% are undecided.

The ruling Democrats (SDS) remain in the lead with 18.7% support, up 0.5 percentage points, followed by the opposition Social Democrats (SD) with 10.9%, down from 11%, and the Marjan Šarec List (LMŠ) with 9.6%, up 1.7 points.

If elections were held last Sunday, 8.3% would vote for the opposition Left and 4.6% for the coalition New Slovenia (NSi).

All the other parliamentary parties enjoy support of less than 4%, with the opposition Pensioners' Party (DeSUS) and the coalition Modern Centre Party (SMC) doing the worst among them, as both received less than 1.5% support.

A total of 16.5% of the respondents were undecided, whereas 11.9% would not vote for any of the parties.

The most popular politician is Health Minister Janez Poklukar, who appeared in POP TV's poll for the first time.

NSi's MEP Ljudmila Novak (EPP) placed second, overtaking President Borut Pahor, who is now third.

NSi leader and Defence Minister Matej Tonin lost his third place to end up ninth, while Prime Minister Janša slipped from 14th to 16th.

The respondents were also asked about their interest in Covid-19 vaccination, with over 45% saying they intended to get vaccinated.

A third of a total of 713 polled persons will not get vaccinated, almost 13% are still undecided, and around 9% have already been vaccinated.

A fifth assessed Slovenia's vaccination campaign as successful, whereas 38.1% believe the country is neither successful nor unsuccessful.

A total of 35.6% meanwhile believe it is unsuccessful, of whom almost 33% blame it on the government's inappropriate response, almost 21% believe the vaccines are not adequately checked, over 11% blame it on the producers' low production capacities and 8% cited low trust in vaccination.

14 Mar 2021, 12:32 PM

The covers and editorials from leading weeklies of the Left and Right for the work-week ending Friday, 12 March 2021. All our stories about coronavirus and Slovenia are here

Mladina: Four liberal centrist parties should merge

STA, 12 March 2021 - Mladina says in its latest commentary that a new party would perhaps not be able to beat the ruling Democrats (SDS) in the next election and proposes instead that a party that would merge the existing four liberal centrist parties might be the answer. But this also opens up a series of questions.

The left-leaning weekly notes under the headline New Old Party that establishing a completely new party that would bet on its purity means recruitment of political novices who have never performed this complex profession.

This is what economist Jože P. Damijan, who initiated the informal Constitutional Arch Coalition (KUL), is aware of. He knows that a party that bears a person's name is able to "seriously dance for one election only."

Mladina also argues that voters have grown tired of the concept of new, "pure parties", and that, if someone other than the Social Democrats (SD) and Left wanted to seriously challenge the SDS, they would need to offer much more than 88 candidate names.

"Standing on the other side is the SDS party machine, which has a strong people and media network, and a lot of money. In 2022 (if the election is held on the scheduled date), this machine will be even stronger."

This calls for an attempt for a merger of the Marjan Šarec List (LMŠ), Alenka Bratušek Party (SAB), Pensioners' Party (DeSUS) and perhaps the Modern Centre Party (SMC), but this, of course, opens up many questions.

"Are Alenka Bratušek and Marjan Šarec ready to withdraw from party president posts and find a shared, powerful party leader? Is the SMC able to make a turnaround before the election and give up on the current leadership?

"Is DeSUS capable of realising that they may survive only with the merger? Are all of them together capable of finding a leader, a serious independent person?"

The four weak parties would become a strong force, and voters are actually looking for a liberal conservative political party. All these parties are advocating similar economic and political viewpoints anyway, Mladina says.

The SD and Left would also breathe more easily if liberals became what they actually are, and perhaps the moment is right. It seems that everybody in that part of the political spectrum started realising that there is not much time left.

Demokracija: EU should focus on vaccines, not Slovenian media

STA, 11 March 2021 - Demokracija says in its latest commentary that instead of dealing with vaccination, the field in which it has utterly failed, the European Commission is "saving democracy and freedom of the press" in Poland, Hungary and Slovenia. It adds that the final goal is elimination of the natural reality.

"The EU has failed an exam again. This is logical, as its priorities are elsewhere (well, the virus is not going anywhere): saving democracy and freedom of the press in Poland and Hungary and, as of recently, in Slovenia."

Under the headline Treasonous Elites, the right-wing weekly adds that displaying Slovenia as an "oasis of evil" is not a mirage, as the drive of the progressive MEPs (with help from media "experts") is a result of pure malice.

It argues that the purpose of this propaganda is to demonise the centre-right Slovenian government by means of manipulation and lies that have been circulated for years by the "independent" media.

According to Demokracija, the final objective is elimination of the natural reality, with the Slovenian, Hungarian and Polish prime ministers being the last ones who stand in the way.

"The Brussels elites want to replace it with a new world without roots. The price of globalisation is identity suicide, and elimination of sovereignty of individual countries is just a stage in the implementation of the sick objectives of the corrupt international bandits. This game is really dangerous."

The analysts who criticise the Slovenian government's attitude to the media are merely "useful idiots" who in the name of democracy, freedom and humanism participate in the destruction of everything that is traditional, the commentary concludes.

All our posts in this series are here

27 Feb 2021, 08:57 AM

The covers and editorials from leading weeklies of the Left and Right for the work-week ending Friday, 26 February 2021. All our stories about coronavirus and Slovenia are here

Mladina: Good Reasons for an Independence Museum

STA, 26 February 2021 - The left-leaning Mladina magazine says in its latest editorial that the idea of the Janez Janša government to establish a museum of Slovenian independence should be supported simply because it should be clearly explained that persons who later became alleged great democrats had used to try their luck first in the Communist Party.

"But this is only the first reason why the establishment of the new museum needs to be supported. The main reasons are hiding in the present time," the left-leaning weekly adds under the headline For Museum of Independence.

It argues that if Janša and his political supporters so persistently build on their actual and also alleged credits for independence and democratisation of Slovenia, it is time indeed to get the space where everything would be explained in detail.

Construction should start during their time in power, and the "next, normal authorities need to make the commitment that they will conclude this project, only that it will hand it over to actual and true historians."

Mladina argues that the timeline in the museum should end in the present time, with the departure of the last communist from power, noting that there were currently two such persons - President Borut Pahor and Prime Minister Janez Janša.

The weekly says that both have remained Communist Party members in their soul and that it is thus right for them to get their place in the museum.

"They have a common episode that should get a special, dark corridor in the museum," it says in reference to the erased, the thousands of nationals of the former Yugoslavia who were unlawfully deleted from the country's permanent resident registry.

Mladina adds that children should also learn about all the other stories, "from the one about Janša sending [dissident] Jože Pučnik to history to arms trade ... yes, this is the history of Slovenia's independence efforts".

This circle that Slovenia has completed in the 30 years deserves a museum. "And Janša is right: he deserves a special place in it. As a warning to the future generations," concludes the commentary.

Demokracija: The Left that Instigates Hatred

STA, 25 February 2021 - A journalist from Politico reproached Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Janša for waging a war on and expressing hatred towards the media, but the truth is diametrically opposite - it is the media inclined to the left that instigate hatred and war against the centre-right government, the right-leaning Demokracija says in its latest commentary.

The right-leaning weekly says that when Janša fired back at the journalist, a well-organised globalist journalist group that "lives in a world of hatred towards everything that does not correspond to their beliefs" immediately responded.

The wrath expressed against Janša, who "dared respond to the lies and manipulations written by Lili Bayer" is the latest textbook example, Demokracija adds under the headline Coachmen of Fake Justice.

"Those who follow what is going on beyond borders at least a little bit have noticed that the agenda of the leftist avant-garde is the same everywhere. What is not on their side of the value system is fascism, racism, xenophobia and hatred."

It was naive to expect that generation X, which had been brainwashed by the baby boom generation and which today holds major positions in the media, education, public administration and governments, will be tolerant to those who think differently.

"Instead, a generation has grown of terrifying people who lean towards totalitarianism, and who have established the foundation of the system with the wish to replace the ancient, traditional ideas and and laws."

Demokracija cannot believe that the competitive battle of viewpoints is dying out and how easily some people accept the religion of single-mindedness as the latest trend, as the only legitimate direction.

"How quickly completely ordinary people joined the madness and become snitches who help repress different opinions, only to suck up to the fake icons of justice. The latter, believe me, are taking the coach and the horse into the abyss."

All our posts in this series are here

20 Feb 2021, 11:34 AM

The covers and editorials from leading weeklies of the Left and Right for the work-week ending Friday, 18 February 2021. All our stories about coronavirus and Slovenia are here

Mladina: SMC and DeSUS MPs like Nazi collaborators

STA, 19 February 2021 - The left-wing magazine Mladina compares the Modern Centre Party (SMC) and DeSUS MPs following their decision not to vote out the Janez Janša government to Nazi collaborators in the editorial headlined We're All Lili Bayer.

Noting the vote and Janša's attack on the author of a Politico article about Janša's campaign against Slovenian media, the weekly writes that by supporting the government in Monday's vote the SMC assumed full responsibility for his and the government's actions.

It accuses the party of being "involved in the demolition of the rule of law, of putting up with political blockade of prosecutor appointments and actively supporting the government's interference in the media" through its representative who was appointed to head RTV Slovenija.

"Janša's attack on the journalist Lili Bayer has not gone unnoticed. Janša has now got their support and he feels strong [...] The SMC has thus assumed full responsibility for demolition of the Slovenian cultural space, Janša's attacks on media and the rule of law, for violence against citizens on the streets [...]. After Janša's attack on Lili Bayer no one in Europe no longer needs to be explained this government's attitude to the media."

The weekly asserts that like collaborators throughout Europe hoped ardently until the very last that the Nazi Germany would not lose the war, so are the SMC and DeSUS hoping that the economy would do well and people would forget and the government would not lose the election.

However, Mladina does not expect this will happen asserting that "the candies" they are distributing are ineffective.

It repeats that Slovenia's coronavirus record is one of the poorest in Europe, which it says is also because unlike elsewhere in Europe, Slovenia does not have border checks to prevent the import of coronavirus, while people are being fined for expressing their political views in front of the parliament building.

"It would be hard to find a more obvious proof that a large part of the ostensibly anti-epidemic measures is but an abuse of the epidemic for political purposes," something the paper says is also subject of questions from representatives of EU countries and institutions, who it says are worried that a man who attacked Bayer in such a crude way should represent the EU in the second half of the year.

Demokracija: Left's actions taking Slovenia to dark place

STA, 18 February 2021 - Monday's vote of no-confidence was yet another hallucination of the leftist parties, proving that they only know how to create the unnecessary, the right-wing Demokacija magazine says on Thursday. The proposal to oust the Janez Janša government was "completely superfluous" and a result of the left's obsession with and hate of Janša.

The left has not been successful at anything even if leftist activists and the entire mainstream media have provided it with more fuel than a Boeing 747 could take.

"That's why it ended as it did: with their 'ace' Karl Erjavec and a destructive parliamentary farce, Marjan Šarec, Luka Mesec, Tanja Fajon and Alenka Bratušek have turned into an exhibition item of a failed show," the right-wing weekly says under the headline Exhibition Item of Failed Show.

Although nobody denies the leftist opposition the right to file one no-confidence motion after another, it is hard to persuade it it is wrong.

Infatuated with its own truth, it does not acknowledge reality, including that the KUL coalition was never even close to the magic 46 votes needed to topple the centre-right government.

Demokracija believes Monday's vote was just one in a series of destructive acts that are to follow, including street violence by self-styled civil society activists.

"Dear leaders of the left opposition, you are full of talk about democracy and freedom, constantly stressing dialogue, often saying you want to talk. But do you?"

The leader of the centre-right government coalition has invited you to cooperation on a number of occasions, but you have turned him down with a policy of exclusion."

The weekly wonders with whom the left would be willing to talk. It says having two ideologically different sides is good, or else we would have closed-mindedness.

It accuses the left of demonising conservativism because it is bothered by views different than its own.

"Your demonisation of everything that might smell of conservativism shamefully assumes that some are less human, that they do not have the right to be different, that they must never come to power even if they have won the election."

It thus blames the left for death calls appearing in the streets and on social media, and on the facades of churches and of the homes of "wrong" MPs, as well as for "peaceful" protesters going wild and for the spread of the coronavirus.

The magazine says it is high time for the left opposition to stop being mean. "Continuing what you do can take Slovenia to a very dark place."

All our posts in this series are here

17 Feb 2021, 11:58 AM

STA, 16 February 2021 - The National Assembly passed in a 45:28 vote on Tuesday legislation that redraws the boundaries of multiple electoral districts in compliance with a 2018 Constitutional Court decision.

The amendments on the act governing electoral district come after the Constitutional Court found that the sizes of electoral districts had become so different over the years the "one voter, one vote" system was effectively undermined.

It gave the National Assembly two years to change legislation, but stopped short of saying exactly how that should be done.

Two possible pathways emerged in talks sponsored by President Borut Pahor, the one passed today and a rival motion that would have abolished electoral districts altogether in favour of ranked-choice voting at the level of electoral units.

The second proposal would require a two-thirds majority and consecutive attempts by mostly smaller parties failed, while the option endorsed today required just a regular majority.

This option had originally been promoted by the SDS, SMC and DeSUS while the latter was still in the coalition. Eventually, the fourth coalition partner, the NSi, also came on board.

MPs also overwhelmingly endorsed amendments to the general election act that simplify the way the two MPs representing the Italian and Hungarian minorities are elected.

The current system of reverse ranked voting will be replaced by a first-past-the-post majoritarian system.

16 Feb 2021, 09:44 AM

STA, 15 February 2021 - The ruling Democrats (SDS) enjoy more voter support than last month, having gained 3.5 percentage points to 17.2%, shows the poll run by the newspaper Delo on Monday. The SDS is followed by two opposition parties whose ratings have slightly improved - the Left polled at 10% and the Social Democrats (SD) at 9.5%.

The opposition Marjan Šarec List (LMŠ) was slightly down to 7.1%, whereas the coalition New Slovenia (NSi) polled almost on a par with January, at 4.7%.

All the other parliamentary or non-parliamentary parties would not make it to Parliament, meaning they polled below 4%.

Almost 23% of respondents were undecided, which is practically on a par with January, with the number of those who would not vote for any of the parties dropping by almost 2 points to 11.5%.

On aggregate, the support the opposition parties associated in the informal KUL coalition enjoy is by over nine points higher than the support for the coalition parties.

2018 election results wikimedia montage.png

How the last elections, 2018, left Parliament. Source: Wikipedia

The government approval rating meanwhile improved a bit as the number of those assessing its performance as negative dropped from just over 53% in January to 52.4%.

Over 19% of those polled see the government's performance as average, down from almost 25%, a quarter see it as positive, down from 20.6%, with 1% undecided.

The approval rating for parliament worsened a bit, with 51% assessing it as negative or very negative (up from nearly 47%), 31% as average (down from over 35%) and 15.2% as positive or very positive (up from 14.2%). Almost 3% remain undecided.

President Borut Pahor emerged as the most popular politician yet again, followed by Infrastructure Minister Jernej Vrtovec and Speaker Igor Zorčič. Prime Minister Janez Janša placed 14th, up two spots.

The public opinion poll was carried out by the pollster Mediana among 712 respondents between 9 and 11 February.

26 Jan 2021, 18:32 PM

STA, 26 January 2021 - A new political movement called Povežimo Slovenijo (Unite Slovenia) has emerged. The initiative is wants to bring together a number of smaller, non-parliamentary parties, groups, local initiatives and individuals of various values and political stances to form a joint slate for the next general elections.

The movement's programme and its cooperation strategy is based on Slovenia's constitution and has been modelled on such projects abroad, most notably in Austria and Switzerland where big-tent pre-election coalitions are frequent.

The initiator and coordinator of the movement is vice president of the Greens Nada Pavšer, who believes that the emerging list could get at least 20% in the next election.

The response so far has been very positive, she told today's press conference presenting the initiative. The Greens head Andrej Čuš thinks the movement will be a success story.

He highlighted that there had been enough negative stories and suggested that the movement would appeal to undecided voters by striving to overcome political polarisation. The movement is to nominate its own candidate for prime minister.

The initiative aims to give a voice to civil society and not only politicians, and back good proposals regardless of their source, he said.

The Greens executive committee and the People's Party (SLS) main committee have already confirmed their cooperation in the initiative, he added.

Marjan Podobnik of the SLS believes that such cooperation could be welcomed by voters who have not been casting their ballots in recent years.

Among a host of public figures and parties that are reportedly discussing cooperation with the movement are the New People's Party of former Maribor mayor Franc Kangler, the list of Celje Mayor Bojan Šrot, Koper Mayor Aleš Bržan's list as well as Zdravko Počivalšek, the leader of the coalition Modern Centre Party (SMC).

Počivalšek, whose party has been ranking low in opinion polls for months, said in the movement's presentational video that "every act of cooperation within the political centre is beneficial and necessary to reach equilibrium in our political arena".

"The SMC also works on bringing together the liberal centre," he said.

Among those who also featured in the video were the president's adviser and former Constitutional Court judge Ernest Petrič, Chamber of Craft and Small Business (OZS) head Branko Meh, the head of the Pensioners' Association (ZDUS) Janez Sušnik, head of an inter-municipal association of the blind and visually-impaired of Slovenia Luj Šprohar, musician Oto Pestner, and judoka Lucija Polavder.

The former head of the Pensioners' Party (DeSUS) Aleksandra Pivec confirmed for RTV Slovenija yesterday that she had discussed potential cooperation with the initiative, however her primary plan remains to form her own party.

At this stage the emerging party is not entering any movement, she said, but it will be willing to cooperate.

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