PM Says Referendum on Budget First Ever in History
Janša is scheduled to meet EU Monetary and Economic Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn today to brief him on the situation in Slovenia.
Yesterday, public sector trade unions launched referendum procedures in protest against planned public pay cuts in 2013 and 2014 budget.
"It has happened for the first time in the history of any parliamentary democracy that the passage of a budget is being blocked with a referendum. This has never happened anywhere in the world and we need to provide explanations," said Janša.
The prime minister is also expected to brief the commissioner on the situation regarding referendum initiatives over bad bank and sovereign holding laws.
Janša expressed hope today that an agreement to "unblock" the bad bank law will be reached soon. "Otherwise, the period until the launch of uniform eurozone bank supervision can prove fatal for Slovenia," he said.
Months will pass before the supervision is implemented, said the prime minister, who welcomed the agreement on the joint supervision, but warned that until its implementation "Slovenia must do its homework".
The coalition parties submitted the bad bank referendum initiative for constitutional review to avoid any unconstitutional consequences that might incur with the vote. The Constitutional Court began discussing it today.
The same fate awaits the budget referendum initiative, as the National Assembly is expected to vote on whether to submit it for constitutional review next Friday.
The prime minister moreover commented on reports by Croatian media about alleged solutions for the LB bank dispute between the two countries, all of which Slovenia has denied.
"It takes two to reach an agreement. If one side does not confirm such information, obviously an agreement has not been reached."