03. 11. 2010

RTV Slovenija Referendum to Be Held on 12 December

Ljubljana, 03.11.2010. (Government Communication Office, Republic of Slovenia) - A referendum on the act which reforms the institutional framework of public broadcaster RTV Slovenija will be held on 12 December, parliament decided late on Tuesday after a protracted debate that saw the opposition stonewalling its own request.

The decision was supposed to be a mere formality as parliament is required to call a referendum at the request of at least one third of all MPs, but the debate soon escalated into a dispute as to when the vote should be held.

The opposition, led by SDS, argued the vote should be postponed until 17 April since at least two more pieces of legislation, the controversial mini jobs act and the pension reform bill, are likely to be put to voters. But setting the date so far into the future would require a two-thirds majority, which the coalition refused to provide, arguing that the act was scheduled to enter into force on 1 January and the vote could not wait that long.

But since the opposition refused to register for voting, resulting in an inquorate chamber for three consecutive votes, and the deadline for calling the referendum expired at midnight yesterday, the coalition had to corral its MPs at the eleventh hour in order to secure a quorum for the decision.

The referendum has been requested due to opposition to the planned transformation of the public broadcaster into a public corporation, and provisions that special programming would be produced for national communities from the former Yugoslavia.

Culture Minister Majda Sirca rejected the allegations against the law, saying that it had been drafted painstakingly slow with the participation of media experts. She said it would make the broadcaster more independent and professional, something the referendum proponents feared.

The debate, which lasted over seven hours, saw the opposition and coalition trading barbs, with both sides reproaching the other for wanting to secure political influence at Slovenia's main media outlet.

The referendum will be the 14th since 1991, when Slovenia won independence, and the second about the public broadcaster. The current law on RTV Slovenija, proposed by the present opposition, was put to vote in 2005 and passed with a thin majority of just over 50%.