NEWS
Prime Minister Janez Janša: "Slovenia will get its fiscal police in the middle of the following year.
Only by borrowing less we will be able to meet all the requests, regardless of how loudly they are being formulated. The Government is working hard to achieve stability, however, the crisis did not pop up over night," said the Prime Minister speaking to the members of the National Assembly.
"In any democratic society the request for the resignation of the Government is a legitimate right of every citizen, members of the civil society or peaceful protesters. This has happened and will continue to happen until there is democracy. And it does not happen only in Slovenia," said Prime Minister Janez Janša, commenting the recent demonstrations. Majda Potrata (Social Democrats -SD) asked the Prime Minister what measures had been taken by the Government after the demonstrations.
"When we talk about the right of deposing the Government or the executive or the legislative branch institutions, the situation is not the same. The right to change the Government lies with the members of the National Assembly, while the right to change the legislative authority – that is you, members of the National Assembly, who elect the Government - lies with the voters, and our Constitution defines clearly how this right is implemented", explained the Prime Minister,
adding: "There are many reasons for social requests and expressions of dissatisfaction. Since 2008, Slovenia is in a kind of shock, for the first time in its independent history things are not evolving upwards; before everything was just growing: wages, standard of living, construction industry, in brief, everything seemed possible. Each year, even when we over borrowed, the budget provided more funds, but now this is over. Times have changed, there is no more money and sooner or later we will have to understand it. "He added that the current measures taken by the Government are not austerity measures providing savings, but measures to confine borrowing, and that there is great concern also within the European Union on when this fall would end. It is estimated that the euro zone will feel the first signs of recovery at the end of the following year. Majda Potrata replied that constants appeals to unity are not productive. According to her, the result of such a policy is that the minority is being blackmailed by the majority. Prime Minister Janša replied by referring to the second round of presidential elections which, in his opinion, showed unity. "This Government was sworn in on February the 10th, and has not even been in office for a whole year, and in such a short period it is impossible to make all which had not been done before, during a full term of office," continued the Prime Minister and reminded Majda Potrata that her party promised their support to the incorporation of the golden rule, but later broke it, like they did for the limitation of the referendum initiative.
"The Slovenian Sovereign Holding Act, blocked by the opposition, provided for a strategy of sale of state assets. The sooner the Act is adopted, the sooner the strategy will be implemented," was the Prime Minister's reply to Alenka Bratušek (Positive Slovenia - PS) who asked about the Sovereign Holding and the strategy of sale of state assets. He expressed his concern over the confusion reigning in past weeks and days. The coalition is contemplating a modification of the coalition agreement, and not considering the sale of any bank or company. "The time for selling must be chosen appropriately. Some moments are better, some are worse," added Prime Minister Janez Janša and also denied that he had been to the United States on an official visit, he was on the territory of the US privately, and that the opposition's fear that state assets would be sold out is much overrated, as there is very little interest for buying them.
Gašpar Gašpar Mišič (Positive Slovenia – PS) asked what measures the Government intended to adopt to prevent clientelism and nepotism when recruiting in public administration and state-owned companies. Prime Minister pointed out that jobs in PM's and minister's offices are jobs involving personal trust and are signed for fixed periods, so there is no reason to fear that such jobs would continue to burden the budget after the end of the relative term of office. He stressed that he is very proud of his daughter, who was a golden graduate after high school, studied abroad and was employed at Plinovodi within a public concourse. Speaking of his former common-law wife he said that she has been employed by DARS for already nine or ten years. He pointed out, however, that the daughter of the incumbent President of the Republic worked for the president of the Positive Slovenia, and was paid by taxpayers. "One daughter of the former President of the Republic, Milan Kučan, is employed in the public administration, the other was selected for the Stožice project, allegedly under a public tender," reminded the Prime Minister, saying that double standards are being applied in this country. He further stressed that he was not acquainted with the recruitment procedure concerning his daughter.
The last question was that of Mihael Prevc (Slovenian People's Party – SLS), who wanted to know when the Government intended to proceed with the seizure of assets of illegal origin, and when fiscal police would be established. "Slovenia will get its fiscal police in the middle of the following year, after the merging of Customs and Tax Administrations, providing that the relative laws are adopted," said the Prime Minister. He added that he would like to believe that procedures are long because of inadequate legislation, but that he feared that this was not so. He explained his fears by quoting the case of investigation and conviction of a deputy of the last mandate, concluded in half a year. On the other hand the case of Zbiljski gaj clearly shows that the problem does not lie in the legislation, but in the implementation of it. Therefore this is a question for the judiciary, and not for the executive branch. When analysing the data on court backlogs, the Prime Minister is concerned about the operation of the judiciary. "Whoever touches this subject is immediately accused of intervention in the judicial branch, however, until a discussion on this subject is launched, there will obviously be no change. I believe that in this country no sphere of life should be untouchable. But things will not change until this situation remains the same," concluded the Prime Minister.