Attempt to oust Slovenia’s PM fails

Slovenia’s highly controversial prime minister, Janes Jansa, overcame the risk of ousting him in a crucial parliamentary vote on Wednesday, a month before the country takes over the rotating presidency of the European Union.

Following its first failure in February, the opposition failed to secure the majority needed to shorten the 62-year-old Conservative prime minister’s third term: 42 voted in favor, 44 against in the 90-seat Slovenian parliament.

The four parties behind the motion of censure strongly criticize Mr. Jansas for the way he dealt with the coronavirus pandemic, especially that it provided only an insufficient dose of vaccines for COVID-19.

With 210 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, according to the French Agency’s database, Slovenia has been hit hard by the pandemic.

The opposition also denounces pressure on the judiciary and attacks on the media. The Slovenian prime minister has not hesitated to attack journalists personally via Twitter, while he has suspended the provision of public funding to the country’s national news agency, STA.

Acts in a way «arbitrary, authoritarian, harmful and dangerous“, Pounded during the debate in parliament the opposition MP Gianni Moderdorfer. «It ridicules democracy, it mocks the state and the citizensOf the country, he added.

Janes Jansa, who attended the meeting for only a short time, rejected the “absurd” accusations of the opposition, while he did not fail to announce that the Slovenian economy “will recover faster than that of any other EU member state”.

Criticized the “pathetic attempt by the privileged to destabilize»The country of the Alps with two million inhabitants.

The Conservative prime minister has suffered a split in his party in recent months. His popularity is at an all-time low since he took office in March 2020 – favorable views on his performance do not exceed 30% – while protests since late April in central Ljubljana with central demand for early elections to follow one another.

Mr Jansa, who has been accused by many of duplicating Viktor Orban, Hungary’s nationalist populist prime minister, of It also has bad relations with Brussels, as Slovenia prepares to take the helm of the EU on 1 July.

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