After Spain, Ireland and Norway, the Parliament of Slovenia recognizes the State of Palestine

A new European country takes the plunge, a week after Spain, Ireland and Norway. In Slovenia, Parliament passed a decree recognizing the State of Palestine on Tuesday June 4. The ruling coalition decided to go through the motions and reject an opposition motion. The decree was approved by 52 votes out of 90 seats, the opposition having boycotted the session.

The government sent the decree to Parliament for approval last week, speeding up the procedure to ratify the decision before the European elections. But on Monday, the conservative opposition tabled a motion preventing the vote scheduled for Tuesday. The Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS), led by former Prime Minister Janez Jansa, demanded the organization of a consultative referendum on the recognition decree, thus delaying the vote by at least a month.

Against all expectations, the President of Parliament, Urska Klakocar Zupancic, estimated on Tuesday that the opposition had “abused the referendum mechanism”, saying the 30-day deadline only applied to bills and not executive orders. During a chaotic six-hour session, interrupted several times for procedural reasons, the motion was rejected by a large majority and then the decree passed. Janez Jansa had previously accused the ruling center-left coalition “to break the procedure”leaving the hemicycle with the deputies of his party.