Slovenian PM unexpectedly resigns
ZAGREB, (MILLAT ONLINE)::Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar unexpectedly resigned on Wednesday evening over a Supreme Court decision nullifying a referendum in favor of a major railroad project.
Cerar said he would formally notify President Boris Pahor on Thursday. The move means that Slovenia’s parliamentary elections, which were due in early June, will be held earlier.
The referendum in September approved the government’s plan to build 27 kilometers of additional railway linking the Adriatic port of Koper with the Divaca hub near the border with Italy, a project worth nearly one billion euros.
Cerar said the rail line would be of “strategic importance for the development of Slovenia.”
But the Slovenian Supreme Court ordered a new vote, saying the government unfairly influenced voters to approve the project.
“This was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Cerar said in his resignation note to parliament. “The second track project has been hit by another blow taken by those who want to stop Slovenia’s positive development.
I don’t want to be part of such stories.”
Cerar says his center-left coalition is leaving the country in much better economic shape than it was when it took power in 2014.
“I have made a decision any trustworthy politician should make in such a situation,” Cerar said in a statement broadcast live. “You (citizens) will have a chance in the elections to judge between right and wrong and who deserves your support.”
“During my term the economic crisis ended. Slovenia has stable economic growth, third strongest in EU,” he said. “We have the lowest unemployment rate after 2009.” Cerar’s resignation was also a surprise to his coalition partners.