Pašek Šetinc replaced as chair of inquiry commission
Ljubljana, 25 November - Deputy Mojca Pašek Šetinc has been replaced as the chair of the parliamentary inquiry looking into party financing after she was expelled from the Freedom Movement. The inquiry will now be headed by the ruling party's MP Tamara Vonta.
Ljubljana
Chair of the parliamentary commission investigating suspected unlawful financing of political parties Mojca Šetinc Pašek.
Photo: Nace Hočevar/STA
The dismissal, proposed by the Freedom Movement, was endorsed by 46 MPs on Friday. Pašek Šetinc was the only coalition MP to vote against her own dismissal.
While the move was widely expected given that she was kicked out of the party because she allegedly undermined party unity, she said she had never been informed of why she was being replaced as commission chair.
Pašek Šetinc was dismissed the day her inquiry commission's interim report was presented to parliament. She thanked National Assembly President Urška Klakočar Zupančič for letting her present the report before her chairmanship ended.
Pašek Šetinc remains a member of the Freedom Movement deputy group for now because as an independent MP, she would not be entitled to aides. She has however left all options open after having been invited by both junior coalition partners to join their deputy groups.
Vonta, a former TV news presenter, was first elected to parliament on the Positive Slovenia ticket in 2011. In 2013 she joined the Alenka Bratušek government, first as a state secretary and then as the director of the Media Directorate. She returned to parliament in 2022.