Ljubljana - The National Assembly passed the National Demographic Fund bill at second reading last night, tweaking the bill slightly via amendments by the coalition, but voting down a number of amendments tabled by the opposition, including the one exempting the STA from the fund.

Under the government-sponsored bill, the fund is to be created with a restructuring of the Slovenian Sovereign Holding (SSH) and is to take over the management of nearly all state assets.

Every year, the fund is to contribute 40% of dividends and 40% of proceeds into the pension purse, while the rest is to be spent on family policies and elderly care. The MPs endorsed an amendment expanding this list with scholarship policies.

The MPs passed several amendments by the coalition, including one on procedure to check the qualifications of supervisory board members.

While the coalition, as well as the Pensioners' Party (DeSUS), which recently left the government, support the bill, the opposition believes the goal of the bill is to gain control over management of state assets, while falling short of bringing a solution for the pension purse.

The opposition Social Democrats (SD), the Marjan Šarec List (LMŠ), the Alenka Bratušek Party (SAB) and the Left have proposed a referendum be called on the bill. A decision about this will be taken by the National Assembly before the final vote at third reading.

Yesterday, the opposition parties filed a number of amendments, which were all voted down. They wanted to change the fund's supervisory board make-up, to place decisions about strategic investments in the hands of the National Assembly and to have the Economic and Social Council discuss the fund's draft management strategy.

The opposition also wanted to throw out a provision under which all companies whose only shareholder is the state would be placed under the fund, including the STA.

The Left coordinator Luka Mesec believes this will give the fund power to interfere in institutions in which it has no business, while his party colleague Nataša Sukič said the move was a "guillotine for the STA and the independence of media". Lidija Divjak Mirnik of the LMŠ said the government had failed to destroy the agency financially so it wanted to discipline it in another way.