There was no vote today. The National Assembly’s legal office established that the proposal put forward by the Left party, which was supposed to be debated by the National Assembly at an extraordinary session on Friday, was not in line with the Foreign Affairs Act.

A representative of the National Assembly’s legal office explained that in line with the Foreign Affairs Act and current practice, a motion on the recognition of a state must be submitted by the government. And as the government failed to submit such a motion before the resignation of PM Miro Cerar, adopting the proposed motion would be contrary to the law.

Bogomir Vnučec, a member of the National Council, and Ernest Petrič, President Pahor’s foreign policy advisor, both expressed their opposition to the Left’s proposal. The chair of the committee, Jožef Horvat (NSi party), ended the debate and proposed that the committee adopt a procedural decision, that proposing the recognition of Palestine without a government-sponsored motion was not possible.

10 MPs backed Horvat’s proposal while 6 voted against.

Erjavec convinced in the opposite
In reaction to the decision, making it not possible to decide on the recognition of Palestine without a clear position from the government, Foreign Minister Karl Erjavec expressed hope that the government will nevertheless put forward such a motion. "The government has to give the National Assembly, which has full powers, the opportunity to decide," he stressed.