NEWS

Prime Minister's press conference following the Government's 132nd regular session

At the press conference held after the Government session, Prime Minister Borut Pahor underlined that Slovenia is a country capable of implementing reform, and has an operational Government which is fully able to carry out its duties. This is, he said, an important indicator for the financial markets, which are monitoring the situation in Slovenia closely. The Government is performing its tasks effectively and efficiently, and proposes legislation which is then adopted with the necessary majority by Parliament. There is no Government crisis and Slovenia is by no means in a situation comparable to that seen in Portugal some months ago, stressed Prime Minister Pahor. "In this sense, Slovenia is fully politically operational; certain instabilities in the coalition are not a cause of concern and have no direct or indirect impact on the work of the Slovenian Government."

  

"Slovenia has an extremely open attitude to referendums," he continued "and, as a result, groups that are interested in opposing change can cause reforms to fail relatively easily, which, of course, results in an increase in the doubts held by international community regarding Slovenia's ability to carry out its reforms". The Government continues to work on its health, property tax and other reforms. Next week, the Government plans to tackle the "financial sector policy concerning the strategy of state capital investments". Certain measures will be defined in order to further reassure the financial markets. "However, all these activities are carried out in the knowledge that they will be to no avail if the pension reform is not adopted, as this would make the adoption of an intervention Act necessary," said Prime Minister Pahor, who then added that a draft intervention Act is already being prepared. The only question is whether it will be proposed by the Slovenian Government or, eventually, the eurozone's financial institutions. "The cost-saving measures that would result from a failure to adopt the pension reform promise to be quite cruel," he said and stressed that, for the time being, Slovenia is still master of its own destiny, retaining its independence in deciding on the reform steps to be taken.

   

With regard to the alleged Government crisis, Prime Minister Pahor insisted that there is no such crisis in Slovenia. He also dismissed rumours that he intended to resign after 5 June regardless of the results of the referendum. However, he did not rule out the possibility of early elections, which, in his opinion, are a far better option than a technical government. He counts on the electorate to vote in their best interests and to support the pension reform, because the reform will be of benefit to them all. Should the pension reform not be adopted, he warned, this will have negative consequences on people's standard of living, as the financial markets will "without doubt very quickly and most probably very radically" assess Slovenia as a country incapable of implementing reform.

   

Prime Minister Pahor further stated that should there be a Government crisis we are unable to come to grips with, he would prefer early elections over a technical government. The President of a technical government has limited powers and a technical government would seldom be able to carry out projects in a satisfactory manner. He also announced that he would perform his duties to the best of his ability until the moment when "those who imagine to have a viable alternative, not to mention the authority, initiate change". He said also that he sincerely hoped that his successor would be elected by the people and not by a limited group of individuals who refuse to present themselves to the people and take responsibility. He also stressed that, besides calling for his replacement and making lists of possible successors, it is imperative to present a viable alternative plan, which would give renewed impetus to Slovenia. Prime Minister Pahor concluded by saying that a new Prime Minister is far from being a guarantee of the necessary changes to be made.