Constitutional Commission of the National Assembly – which was today again considering a proposal made by the SDS party to start a constitutional amendment procedure to simplify the procedures for appointing a government – adopted a decision to establish an expert group. It includes legal experts Franc Grad, Igor Kaučič, Miroslav Mozetič and Luka Martin Tomažič.
SDS proposes for a new government to be appointed in a one-phase procedure instead of a two-phase procedure, and Slovenia would get a government sooner. After each election so far, the appointment of the government took place after two or three months. In the view of SDS, the role of a person assigned a mandate for preparing the government’s program and selecting the ministerial team should be strengthened.
Hearings of the candidates for ministers in the National Assembly are largely unnecessary and only make an additional week of delay in forming the government, the SDS estimates. They propose that a PM decides on the appointments and dismissals of ministers, but under the condition that the PM does not change more than one-third of the government team in one term. If the PM wishes to implement bigger changes, that should be called for a vote of confidence for the entire government.
According to the proposal, the President of the Republic would nominate a candidate for the PM, who would submit a proposal of a list of candidates for ministers to the National Assembly within 15 days. The PM and the candidates on the list would be voted on in the National Assembly in an open vote by a majority of all MPs votes.
The Slovenian Government does agree with the SDS’s finding that the current system can extend the time needed to form a new government. However, the existing regulation has other shortcomings that the proposal to amend the Constitution does not seem to consider, the Government believes and estimates that the proposal does not eliminate systemically incorrect regulation as a remnant of the former assembly system, which actually violates the constitutional principle of the separation of powers, but maintains it in an altered form. The Government therefore does not support this part of the proposal.
Source: STA, politikis.si
Photo: Pixabay