NEWS
Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Janša: "Opposition refuses to give go-ahead to changes to Constitution"
After today’s meeting between the presidents of the parliamentary parties, parliamentary group leaders and deputies of the national communities, convened with a view to discussing the incorporation of the golden fiscal rule into the Constitution and constitutional changes to the referendum rules, the Slovenian Prime Minister, Janez Janša, concluded that the "opposition has refused to give the go-ahead to changes to the Constitution".
In his statement to the press, Prime Minister Janša first mentioned that the first coordination meeting between the presidents of the parliamentary parties, in which an agreement in principle was achieved to initiate the procedure for amending the Constitution to incorporate the golden fiscal rule, had been held in January this year. At that time, all the parliamentary parties had agreed to proceed with changing the Constitution; however, two opposition parties later changed their minds. "The proposal for changing the constitutional framework that governs Slovenia's referendum regulations has met a very similar fate," the Prime Minister added, and recalled that a two-thirds majority had been achieved to modify the referendum rules at the last meeting between the parliamentary group leaders and presidents of the parliamentary parties. "All the parties except New Slovenia voted in favour of this decision at the last coordination meeting and it now appears that, despite a high degree of consensus, we lack the two-thirds majority required for these changes, at least not at a time when such a change would appear feasible," the Prime Minister explained. He also touched on the position of New Slovenia which supports the changes to referendum regulations but, at the same time, considers that they could not be enforced until 1 January 2015. "On 1 January 2015, Slovenia will either have overcome the financial crisis and embarked on the path of economic recovery or met the same fate as Greece. It would therefore be fairer for them to say that they do not support these changes," the Prime Minister added. He said that the parliamentary parties that support these changes had nevertheless agreed at today's meeting to carry out these changes and that the changes would have been formally supported by the National Assembly.
In the press release, Prime Minister Janša also noted that the incorporation of the golden fiscal rule into the Slovenian Constitution would send a positive signal to the financial markets. He said that, in light of the views expressed by the parliamentary parties, the Government would be compelled to propose a vote on the incorporation of the golden fiscal rule into the Constitution this summer, and that the coalition lacked sufficient votes to adopt this rule. It is also for this reason that responsibility for the vote would be assumed by all parliamentary parties. "The outcome of the vote on the incorporation of the golden fiscal rule into Slovenia's Constitution will also highlight how we resolve our financial problems, particularly in the banking system. Slovenia will either have to go it alone, or share the fate of Cyprus and Spain and, thereafter, even Greece. This is why this vote will be extremely important," the Prime Minister observed. At the same time he also expressed his belief that, given the fact that the Social Democratic Party had not yet taken a position on this issue, there was still a real possibility of reaching an agreement on this change.
Prime Minister Janša concluded by saying that the parliamentary group leaders and the presidents of the parliamentary parties had also been brought up to speed with the situation in the Slovenian banking sector at today’s meeting.