Coalition, opposition clash over nominations for RTV Slovenija

Ljubljana – The Credentials and Privileges Commission proposed that the National Assembly appoint to the programme council and supervisory board of public broadcaster RTV Slovenija five candidates each who had been proposed by the coalition, the Pensioners’ Party (DeSUS) and the opposition National Party (SNS) much to the chagrin of the centre-left opposition.

The parliamentary commission nominated for RTVS programme council Dejan Cesar, who was put forward by DeSUS, Anuša Gaša (coalition Modern Centre Party – SMC), Vane Gošnik at the proposal of the SNS, Jožef Jerovšek (ruling Democrats – SDS) and Maja Lapornik at the proposal of the coalition New Slovenia (NSi).

The candidates for the programme council, who are appointed by the National Assembly on proposal of political parties, were confirmed with eleven votes for and eight against at Monday’s session.

The same vote outcome was seen as the commission voted on the candidates for the supervisory board of RTV Slovenija – SDS’s Tamara Besednjak Valič, NSi’s Janez Čadež, SMC’s Metka Čobec, DeSUS’s Romana Fišer and SNS’s Alenka Vodončnik.

The commission members from the opposition Marjan Šarec List (LMŠ), Left, Social Democrats (SD) and Alenka Bratušek Party (SAB) and the unaffiliated deputies (NeP) strongly objected the proposals.

They noted that among the nominees for both bodies there were no representatives of deputy groups that had a combined 43 deputies in the National Assembly.

The relevant act stipulates that the National Assembly must take into account equal representation of parties as much as possible when it comes to appointments to the programme council and supervisory board.

NeP head Janja Sluga said this was unlawful, and the LMŠ and Left deputy group heads Brane Golubovič and Matej T. Vatovec said the coalition, DeSUS and the SNS supported “single-mindedness and transformed the public RTV into a new RTV”.

Matjaž Han of the SD noted the need for proportional representation of parliamentary parties, and Andrej Rajh of the SAB said that relevant legislative provisions had not been observed.

On the other hand, Alenka Jeraj from the SDS noted that some MPs were not bothered by the current coalition parties not having their representatives in the RTV supervisory board in the previous mandate.

“You have established such practice and now we are continuing it,” Jeraj said, noting that the parliamentary legal service had said there was nothing wrong.

Vatovec described such logic as “perverted to the bone” and noted that the Left had been striving to get a representative of the NSi appointed in the supervisory board, which did not happen because of the SMC, which was now part of the coalition.

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