PM Seeks Political Stability with Confirmation of 2014 Budget
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The vote will be accompanied by a confidence motion, which Bratušek had promised at the onset of her term in spring. She is confident the government will survive the vote.
"Slovenia deserves a stable government to bring the country forward...the only alternative to the current government is an early election," she told MPs.
Bratušek warned against a hiatus in government in the event of an early election, noting it was crucial for a country with fiscal problems to have a government will full powers.
"The turnaround which we will manage on our own, without foreign diktat, is possible only with a politically firm and credible government," she said.
The prime minister also rejected criticism from the opposition that all her government has done is raise taxes, noting that the bulk of the measures were geared towards kick-starting growth.
"We have not sacrificed development to debt, investment has not slowed down," she said, adding that hers was the first government to seriously tackle the shadow economy.
The opposition also criticised the government for lacking a development strategy and putting too little focus on businesses. "If we fail to create a suitable business environment, there will be no pensions," Jožef Horvat from the opposition New Slovenia (NSi) said.
Coalition Social Democrats (SD) deputy Matjaž Han in turn accused the opposition of cherry-picking the facts. "The opposition intentionally ignored the fact that higher VAT has no effect on exports, which are among the only segments showing positive trends," he said.
The 2014 budget will be put to a vote on Thursday, along with the budget for 2015 and the real estate tax bill, which is aimed at securing crucial budget revenue.
The budget deficit is projected at 2.9% of GDP in 2014 and 2.4% in 2015.