Coalition Believes Slovenia Can Tackle Its Problems on Its Own
The coalition got acquainted today with a report by the Institute for Macroeconomic Analyses and Development (IMAD), which shows that the situation is serious, according to New Slovenia (NSi) head Ljudmila Novak.
Citizens' List (DL) president Gregor Virant told the press that Finance Minister Janez Šušteršič, a member of the DL, had reiterated at the meeting his statement from last week that Slovenia was capable of taking care of its problems on its own.
"There is no reason for panic as long as we adopt the documents we have planned," according to Virant.
The meeting came after Prime Minister Janez Janša raised a lot of dust in Slovenia and elsewhere in Europe when he told an interview with siol.net web portal on Friday that the country could be illiquid in October if it fails to sell its bonds.
The statement was picked up by a number of foreign media over the weekend, while Jože P.Damijan, as economist and minister in Janša's previous government, wondered in a blog post on Sunday whether the PM had lost his senses.
Foreign Minister Karl Erjavec labelled the PM's statement as "quite irresponsible", inappropriate and upsetting of financial markets.
Virant said that there was no need for such pessimism. "We can solve the problems ourselves. Foreign experts, who visited Bled this weekend, have said the same," said DL head, referring among others to OECD boss Angel Gurria, who attended the Bled Strategic Forum.
People's Party (SLS) president Radovan Žerjav underlined that in this moment "everybody needs to work patiently toward the needed measures".
The coalition has not yet given up on including the golden fiscal rule into Slovenia's Constitution, but the plan has been somewhat sidetracked for now. "We have decided to wait a wile longer and try to reach a consensus," Erjavec said.