President, PM Upbeat About Future Cross-Party Cooperation, In Reality Nothing Operational was Agreed
7
Pahor called the meeting a "success" and the "product of political culture", noting that a view prevailed that cooperation was needed on projects that required a broader political and social consensus, not despite the differences, but because of the differences among the parties.
After the surprise resignation by the leadership of the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption last Friday, Pahor briefed party leaders on his plan to initiate proceedings in mid-week to appoint a new presidency of the commission as soon as possible.
He will call on both chambers of parliament, the government, the qualified NGOs and the administrative and judicial councils to send their nominations for the selection commission within 30 days. He will also issue a public call for applications.
One of the items on today's agenda was changes to electoral legislation that would give voters more power over who gets elected to parliament. Commenting on that, Pahor said the parties had never been so close to potential changes.
He said the changes entailed introduction of a mandatory preference vote, abolishment of electoral districts and raising the threshold to enter parliament from 4% to 5%. The parties interested will review the changes by the end of January 2014.
The senior coalition Positive Slovenia (PS) supports the introduction of preference vote and elimination of electoral districts, but party bodies yet need to agree on the proposal to increase the electoral threshold, Bratušek said.
But the changes do not enjoy the support of the coalition Social Democrats (SD) and the Pensioners' Party (DeSUS), according to the party leaders Igor Lukšič and Karl Erjavec. The latter could not say whether the parties that do support the changes could muster the two-thirds majority needed for changes.
Meanwhile, president of the opposition Democratic Party (SDS) Janez Janša indicated that his party would support any, even partial, steps towards a fairer electoral system in which voters would directly select their representatives, while the election result would enable a fast formation of government.
Another agreement reached today was that parliamentary parties would agree by the beginning of March 2014 the content and the manner of their coordination over key legislative and other solutions leading to Slovenia's development and modernisation.
By then the coalition will have crafted an agreement for the coming two years, so that it will present the government's main goals. Based on that, the opposition will decide where it wants to cooperate on, Bratušek explained. By early March, coordination on these solutions would be agreed.
The PM also told other party leaders that she would notify them on the results of the ongoing stress tests at banks even before the public is informed. She would also brief them on the planned government measures to fix the banks in a meeting called as soon as the results of stress tests are available.
Bratušek again offered the opposition coordination over the Slovenian Sovereign Holding and the fiscal rule bill, which she said would be put forward soon.
The PM's promise to call a meeting of parliamentary party leaders as soon as the results of stress tests are out, expectedly on 13 December, was also highlighted by Janša and president of the opposition New Slovenia (NSi) Ljudmila Novak.
Janša said that certain promises had been made for the government's different behaviour when it comes to cross-party coordination over key measures, but he said the mechanisms yet need to be determined, which he expects by the end of February 2014.
The PM meanwhile regretted that she failed to win support for her proposal for all parties to make a commitment to refrain from any public and political sniping against officials representing rule of law institutions.
But she pledged that her government would do everything in its power to boost the institutions' work in the fight against crime by means of legislative changes if necessary.
Similarly, Pahor made a commitment to aspire in cooperation with the party leaders to draw up legislative solutions and other measures to boost the rule of law in Slovenia.
He pointed to his promise to the outgoing presidency of the anti-graft watchdog that he would seriously consider a legislative package aimed at making the watchdog's fight against corruption even more successful.