Pre-election sharpening of weapons starts with migrant policy

Impeachment against Prime Minister

8. januar 2018 ob 13.34 • Ljubljana - MMC RTV SLO

The impeachment should be also understood as an introduction into the final months of the political struggle for votes before the parliamentary elections. Foto: The National Assembly/Barbara Žejavac

The so-called holiday parliamentary standstill at the National Assembly is over. On Tuesday the impeachment against Prime minister Miro Cerar will be placed on the MPs’ desks, filed by the opposition SDS Party for his actions regarding the Syrian refugee Ahmad Shami.

The impeachment should be also understood as an introduction into the final months of the political struggle for votes before the parliamentary elections which will most likely be held in June. The migrant policy is just one of the topics that the political parties will use to convince voters that they are the right choice for country leaders. It is already obvious that Prime Minister Miro Cerar will survive the impeachment based on Shami case, without any political skirmishes.

Therefore, the discussion of the MPs about his actions will be more or less an opportunity for the parliamentary parties to reconfirm their positions regarding migrants and refugees. They are all aware that it is a very sensitive topic for citizens, and that the rhetoric will comply to the ideologic orientations of the parties.

But migrant policy is just one of the topics on which swords of political parties will be crossed during these pre-election months. One of the more important is the chaos in health care, the area everybody will promise to regulate, although also during the Cerar government it became obvious it could be almost considered an impossible mission.

Presently any progress regarding Slovenian-Croatian relationship seems impossible as well, namely regarding the implementation of the arbitration ruling on border with Croatia. Some political parties will take advantage of the pre-election time to show their resolution, and will emphasize the rule of law; the others see it as an opportunity to present a solution which would allow us to avoid additional strain between the countries and find a common language in implementing the ruling.
But all the political actors are most likely aware of the fact that the majority of voters will punish any escalation of tension in relation to Croatia. On Friday the members of the Committee on Foreign Policy will discuss the implementation of the arbitration ruling, and the dialogue with Zagreb. Until that time the attention will be focused on the Bay of Piran, and daily count of incident on both sides.