The Slovenian parliament passed on 14 July an omnibus act that repeals eleven laws passed under the previous government, an unprecedented move that could yet be challenged at the Constitutional Court and one that sets the stage for similar future showdowns.
The bill, tabled by a group of activist NGOs that played a prominent role as critics of the previous government, aims to repeal controversial legislation that was fast-tracked or passed without consultation with stakeholders under the government of ex-prime minister Janez Janša.
Provisions facilitating political staffing in the police force and political influence on the prosecution, the legal basis for platform companies such as Uber, the exclusion of environmental groups from some planning procedures, and laxer rules on purchasing weapons are among the targets of the omnibus act.
The act changes the composition of councils at education institutions where the number of staff representatives was reduced by the previous government, and foreign students will no longer have to have EUR 5,000 in their bank account as one of the conditions to study in Slovenia.
The construction law, which excluded architects and landscape architects from being in charge of construction projects, will also be restored to the previous state. This has upset civil engineers, who have announced they will fight the latest changes with all legal means.
"Natural disasters demand extraordinary measures, and the last two years were a natural disaster for the country's democracy," Goran Forbici, the director of the Centre of NGOs, said just before the legislation was passed.
The parties that make up Slovenia's current government had made it one of their campaign promises to back the NGO-sponsored legislation and have now delivered, albeit after some prodding from civil society.
The omnibus format has been criticised by the opposition and by the parliament's legal department despite it being the same tool used by the previous government to pass laws during the COVID-19 crisis.
But because one of the provisions in the omnibus repeal act deals with taxes, the opposition cannot resort to its preferred tool of calling a referendum since tax laws cannot be the subject of a referendum. The opposition did, however, say it may mount a challenge before the Constitutional Court.
Critics of the government's move have warned that the repeal law could one day become a tool for future governments if they dislike the previous government's measures. "Do the representatives of the people realise where this is leading," former minister Žiga Turk said on Twitter.