Today, the Prime Minister Janez Janša sent a proposal to the National Assembly to relieve of office the Minister of Labour, Family and Social Affairs, Janez Drobnič. At a news conference the PM stressed that the Minister’s shortcomings had been accumulating for some time.
Photo: Office of the Prime Minister
The Prime Minister said that on Tuesday, 23 November 2006, he suggested to Mr Drobnič that he consider resigning, as the PM had assessed the Minister's work to be unsatisfactory. In this case the Code of Ethics of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia has to be observed: this binds all members of the cabinet to tender their resignation in such cases. The PM said Mr Drobnič had rejected his proposal. Mr Janša also stressed it was not true that the Minister had been given only a few hours to consider the resignation. "We talked after my meeting with the unions, which means there was enough time for him to consider and consult. With regard to his comments today and yesterday, I have decided to propose officially that he be relieved of office," said the PM, adding that despite this being a somewhat unusual situation, there are measures in the Constitution, the Government of the Republic of Slovenia Act, and the National Assembly of Slovenia Rules of Procedure to meet such circumstances.
"We have a proportional representation system, which means the government is usually a coalition, so it is customary that the composition of the government is based on agreement between the coalition parties, who – in accordance with the election results – nominate cabinet members, and the Prime Minister-elect, who forms the government. This means there is a consensus on support, and a minister can legitimately hold office as long as there is such consensus. If a minister does not have the support of the nominating coalition party or the PM, it would be normal that he withdraw," said the PM.
The PM said that irregularities in the work of Mr Drobnič were not a new issue. "The Minister was officially reminded of his failure to achieve expected results on 13 February this year. In my letter to him, I wrote a list of tasks falling within his competence or the competence of his ministry that had not been running well. I specifically reminded him that unless the state of affairs improved, I would subsequently propose he be relieved of his duties, " said Mr Janša, adding that following his reminder, the work of the Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs had improved, and successfully dealt with some of the backlogs in implementing the government's programme from 2005. Despite this, according to the PM, the management of the ministry, establishing fair relations within the ministry, the ministry's relationship with the outside world, and its communication with civil society organisations and individuals who sought assistance had failed to improve substantially. "Moreover, little progress has been made with regard to relations between the Minister and social partners. Owing to the inappropriate management of negotiations, backlogs were frequent, and in some cases they assumed strategic importance," continued the PM, stressing the fact that there had been conflicts between Mr Drobnič and some other members of the cabinet, including himself.
The Prime Minister also said that he had asked the leader of New Slovenia to put forward new candidates for running the Ministry, whose candidacy would be addressed once the formal replacement procedure had been concluded.
