April 12, 2018
Freedom House, the US-based organisation that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom, and human rights, has released its latest report on Slovenia (read online, or in PDF form). The headline news is that things are said to have worsened in the country in the last 12 months, with the country’s overall “democracy score” falling from 2.04 to 2.07 (somewhat confusingly, 1 is the best score, 7 the worst), as shown in the following table:
freedomhouse.org
Some quotes from the report:
Due to internal divisions and a lack of political will, the center-left coalition government comprised of the Modern Centre Party (Stranka Modernega Centra, SMC), the Social Democrats (Socialni Demokrati, SD), and the Democratic Party of Pensioners (Demokratična stranka upokojencev, DeSUS) was ineffective in tackling the country’s major problems, such as the inefficient public healthcare sector and the irresponsible management of the state assets….
…Despite certain improvements in efficiency and the accountability of functionaries, the judiciary continued to face low public trust due to perceptions of inequality before the law and poor effectiveness in prosecuting important and well-connected individuals. In a notorious case, a court in Ljubljana decided to destroy evidence against the mayor of Ljubljana, Zoran Jankovič, who faced a number of corruption charges; the court argued that the evidence was destroyed because the persecutor took too long to file an indictment…
...Civil society became more visible through its engagement with issues concerning public health and strategic investments. Civil society organizations organized a referendum on the construction of a second track on the Divača-Koper railway in September, highlighted public authorities’ inefficiency in handling the consequences of a May fire in the Kemis waste processing factory, and opposed an investment by car manufacturer Magna Steyr. However, political parties and lobby groups continued to wield influence over civil society, demonstrating low transparency in the sector. Moreover, NGOs faced direct pressure, including threats of physical violence…. The position of civil society was similar and related to the position of the media, where political groups’ ownership or control of outlets and concentration in the media market hindered the development of autonomous and responsible journalism…
… By far the most important event in Slovenian foreign relations in 2017 was the Permanent Court of Arbitration’s ruling on the border dispute with Croatia. However, the Croatian delegation refused to respect the court’s findings, citing revelations that, in 2015, the Slovenian delegation to the Court had inappropriately received confidential information from a judge sitting on the panel…
… Macroeconomic conditions were very positive, with growth reaching 4.4 percent–the second highest in the EU–due largely to positive trends in the external environment.10 However, due to low efficiency, the government was not able to take advantage of this growth to facilitate much needed structural reforms, for example in the healthcare sector, thereby creating the possibility of a larger scale crisis during a hypothetical future downturn.
Turning to the next 12 months, the report concludes:
Parliamentary elections are scheduled to take place in June 2018. In the government coalition, the main coalition party, the SMC, polls behind its coalition partner SD, while the third coalition party DeSUS is close to the parliamentary threshold. These facts could lead to tensions within the coalition towards the end of the mandate. The lead opposition party SDS will, despite a strong polling position, be unable to put together an alternative coalition due to significant divisions with the coalition as well as with the rest of the opposition. This may perpetuate polarization and radical rhetoric. The position of the leading center-left and center-right parties will be challenged further by the list of Marjan Šarec, which has already gained position in the polls despite many of the candidates on the list being largely unknown. The parliamentary campaign will possibly take place among continued tensions in bilateral relations with Croatia over the implementation of the Court of Arbitration decision on the border dispute with Croatia, which given Croatia’s rejection of the Court’s findings, could lead to border incidents and further tensions in bilateral relations.
As noted above, the full report can be read online or in PDF.
