Weekly Home Affairs Review from 19 through 25 September

Ljubljana, 26 September - Slavko Gaber remained minister of education and sports, the government started the budget debate on the 1999 budget bill, the 1 October-scheduled nurses strike was cancelled, and the Constitutional Court ruling that the Koper town municipality was unconstitutional agitated local population. Despite the turbulent, nearly five-day parliamentary debate about alleged irregularities in the education ministry, the legislators rejected the SDS-SKD proposal to oust minister Gaber. The debate on Slovenia's recent past, which engaged nearly 30 speakers, in turn demonstrated the vastly different opinions held in the civil society, politics, and the professional public about national reconciliation and the two so called reconciliation documents drafted by parliamentary parties. Most speakers argued that the parliament cannot command reconciliation simply by adopting a document. Premier Janez Drnovsek's cabinet started the debate to draft the 1999 budget and guidelines for the 2000 budget. Government expenditure is planned not to exceed SIT 933 billion, while the revenues are expected to reach SIT 900 billion, with the budget deficit not exceeding 1 percent GDP. Ljubljana town councillor Damijan Dolinar filed the motion to the parliament to call an early legislative referendum to the local government amendment bill.