Slovenian PM resigns over invest. project hit legal obstacle
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The move comes less than three months ahead of general election which was expected in June. It was not clear whether Cerar’s resignation would bring the election forward.
In pre-election opinion polls Cerar’s centre-left Party of Modern Centre is trailing behind three other parties with a centre-left List of Marjan Sarec, which has never before run for parliament, being in the lead ahead of the opposition centre-right Slovenian Democratic Party.
Cerar said he would step down in the wake of a Supreme Court decision to annul the result of a September referendum that approved a 1-billion-euro railway project, the centre-left government’s biggest investment programme.
“The (railway project) took a new blow from those who want to stop the positive development of Slovenia,” he said. “I don’t want to be part of such stories.”
Earlier on Wednesday, teachers held their second one-day strike for higher wages. A number of other public sector employees are also demanding hefty pay hikes.
“Demands and suggestions have been becoming less and less feasible and even damaging to the state,” Cerar said.
He told a news conference that coalition partners had been trying for a long time to undermine projects, without naming specific parties or programmes. He said he would keep the post until a new government was formed. (Reuters)
Meanwhile, the UN relief agencies have urged warring parties in Syria to end the conflict and allow humanitarian access for the delivery of life-saving assistance to the people in need.
