Slovenia gets new Ministers of Justice and Interior

(Patria) - The State Assembly, the lower house of the Slovenian parliament, yesterday confirmed the state secretary in the ministry, Andreja Kokalj, as the new Minister of Justice, and the Member of Parliament from the Freedom Movement party, Branko Zlobko, as the new Minister of the Interior.

51 MPs voted for their appointment, while 18 voted against. The new ministers have already taken their oath in the lower house.

The State Assembly confirmed the ministers in the absence of their proposer, Prime Minister Robert Golob.

Their predecessors, Minister of Justice Andreja Katič and Minister of the Interior Boštjan Poklukar, resigned following the tragic attack in Novo Mesto, in which a 48-year-old man was killed.

The new ministers were supported by MPs from the ruling coalition composed of Freedom, Social Democrats, and The Left, while the opposition Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) denied them support.

According to the SDS, Prime Minister Golob should have resigned instead of the ministers, as he publicly admitted that the state was unable to cope with the situation in the southwest of the country.

- Today we are getting the third Minister of Justice and the third Minister of the Interior. Both are taking over the ministries four months before the elections, and we do not expect too much from them from the SDS parliamentary group - said the party's MP Andrej Kosi.

In a later discussion, he added that the previous ministers had to step down "because of the general who is not here today".