NEWS

Prime Minister's press conference following the Government's 131st session

At its 131st regular session, the Government, in addition to other resolutions and laws, agreed on the text of the proposed law on a balance sheet tax for banks and adopted the amendments to the National Assembly Elections Act and the proposed opinion on the amendments to the Deputies Act. The ministers responsible presented the adopted resolutions and laws, and Prime Minister Pahor took questions from journalists on current issues.

  

The Government today agreed on the text of the law on a balance sheet tax for banks, which introduces provisions for the purpose of mitigating the effects of the financial and economic crisis. The aim of the law is to partially compensate the state for providing systemic support to the banking sector during the crisis, and to encourage banks to expand their loan portfolios in the non-financial sector.  The aim of the proposed law is therefore non-fiscal.  The law will apply to Slovenian banks and the branches of foreign banks (from the EU and third countries) in Slovenia, but will not affect savings banks. It will also apply to SID Bank, but with one exception: those banks whose loans to non-financial enterprises and sole proprietors account for less than 20% of their total loans are exempt from paying the tax.

   

Ministers also adopted the amendments to the National Assembly Elections Act. The amendments have been proposed for the purpose of harmonising the Act with a specific provision of Article 80 of the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia, which stipulates that voters have a decisive influence on the allocation of seats to the candidates standing for election. The current regulatory system ties the ballot to a list of candidates, whereas the order of successful candidates is based on the proportion of votes received by a candidate list in a given electoral district.  The proposers of the law take the view that this arrangement prevents personalisation, so the proposed law abolishes electoral districts as a vehicle of exercising the right to stand for election (and retaining them solely for administrative purposes). Voters will thus cast their ballots for the entire candidate list in a given electoral unit. These changes have also prompted calls for the introduction of an absolute mandatory preferential vote, a common practice in many countries, which the proposers of the new law see as the best way to reflect the will of the electorate. The absolute mandatory preferential vote means that a voter is obliged to cast a preferential vote, with the candidates receiving the most preferential votes being elected, with all preferential votes counting—irrespective of the number of preferential votes cast and the number received by an individual candidate. In order to reduce the possibility of spoiled ballots during the transition to the new voting system, the following solution has been proposed: if—despite express instructions that the vote should be cast for a particular candidate—a voter casts their vote for a candidate list, it is assumed that the vote is to be equally distributed to all the candidates on that list (e.g. should eleven candidates be listed, each would receive 1/11 of a vote). A voter who ignores the instruction to circle a single candidate and circles a list of candidates instead will be deemed to have cast their ballot for the whole list; the decision as to which candidate from the list is the most successful will rest with those who also select their first choice of candidate in accordance with the instructions.

   

During today's session, the Government also discussed the proposed opinion on the amendment to Article 10 of the Deputies Act, which will address the incompatibility between the office of deputy and that of the mayor or deputy mayor in a local community.  The Government has endorsed the proposed amendment, finally and expressly preventing one person from holding both offices at the same time, and assesses that the proposed deadline for the commencement of the application of the amended Act is appropriate (following the first elections to the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia).  The amendment is based on the constitutionally prescribed term of office of deputies, during which they represent the interests of all citizens; these interests, however, may be put at risk since certain deputies hold two offices at the same time. The prohibition of simultaneously holding the office of mayor or deputy mayor as the representative of the executive branch and the office of deputy as the representative of the legislative branch is also based on the adopted provisions of the Resolution on the prevention of corruption in the Republic of Slovenia, aimed at preventing a conflict of interest between local interests and the broader social good.

   

At a press conference held following the Government session, Prime Minister Pahor said that he would authorise the Minister Responsible for Slovenians Abroad, Boštjan Žekš, to temporarily undertake duties at the Government Office for Local Self-Government and Regional Policy. Mr Žekš will perform his duties until the appointment of the head of the Office; Prime Minister Pahor, however, does not intend to appoint a new minister.

   

The Prime Minister also responded to Gregor Golobič's announcement that he was to resign as Minister for Higher Education, Science and Technology, stating that he hoped that Gregor Golobič would reconsider his decision but that, should he confirm his resignation, he would do so after the referendum on pension reform has been held. Mr Pahor also added that he would like to meet Minister Golobič to discuss the best possible solution in this regard. He believes that there is no governmental and political instability in Slovenia. There are, however, some sharp differences of opinion within the coalition, but in general, the working atmosphere is good and the Government works with full authority.

    

At the end of the press conference, Prime Minister Pahor also touched on the submission of collected signatures to the National Assembly to hold a referendum on pension reform. He said that it was important to adopt the pension reform since this would ease the financial markets' concerns regarding the state's commitment to necessary reform.  Prime Minister Pahor reiterated that the pension reform determined not only the fate of this Government but also the fate of this country and the standard of living of Slovenian people and their children. He therefore called on the public to support the pension reform, irrespective of their attitude towards the Government, and thus alleviate the state's concerns over what would happen should, with the best interests of this country in mind, a decision be taken to hold early elections.