Ljubljana - The opposition and coalition remained on opposing banks as the National Assembly debated inflation and the costs-of-living crisis upon request of the opposition Democrats (SDS) on Friday. The coalition criticised the opposition for populism, while the opposition in turn claimed that the government measures were not comprehensive enough.

The opposition wanted parliament to urge the government to call on the EU to change the power prices formula. It also wanted to urge the government to lower VAT on all energy products, introduce across-the-board energy allowances, provide more extensive aid to businesses and agriculture and leave the recent changes to the personal income tax in place.

Finance Ministry State Secretary Saša Jazbec however argued that the SDS's proposals failed to provide a goal-oriented addressing of challenges.

"Distress provides truthful ground for populism and the initiator of the debate is aware of this," Miroslav Gregorič of the ruling Freedom Movement said.

He argued the SDS had failed to notice that the government had for months been adopting connected measures that operated in complementary fashion. According to Gregorič, the SDS does not care about viability of its proposals but only about how good they sound.

Predrag Baković of the coalition SocDems added that support for those affected the most must be secured in ways that do not further worsen the situation and cause additional inflation pressure.

SDS deputy Zvnoko Černač however insisted that the government measures only mitigated the energy crisis for part of the population, while more should be done to help companies.

The National Assembly will not vote on the SDS's proposals, as these were already rejected at committee level last week.