Parliament voted

Slovenia recognizes Palestine as a state

After the vote in Ljubljana, the Palestinian flag is raised in front of the Slovenian parliament building.

(Bild: ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Slovenia has recognized Palestine as an independent and sovereign state. Late on Tuesday evening, the Slovenian parliament approved the recognition in a special session with 52 votes in favor and none against.

The conservative opposition boycotted the vote. The proceedings in parliament were accompanied by opposition delaying maneuvers. Only last week, Spain, Ireland and Norway officially recognized an independent Palestinian state.

Although it had initially been said that the referendum motion by the right-wing conservative SDS would delay the vote by at least a month, the coalition parties found a solution to circumvent the blockade before the plenary session in Ljubljana, according to media reports.

Parliament had convened in the afternoon for a debate on the government's decision to recognize Palestine as an independent and sovereign state. After the largest opposition party submitted a motion for a referendum on the issue on Monday, it was announced that it would be discussed but not voted on on Tuesday. The vote should be postponed for at least a month. The daily newspaper "Delo" reported that postponing the vote was not an acceptable option for the governing coalition.

This morning, the parties were looking for a solution that would allow the vote to take place on Tuesday evening. Originally, it was said that parliament must first decide on the referendum motion before the Palestine vote. According to reports, however, there are also other interpretations of the parliamentary procedure.

The recognition of Palestine is now stirring up the EU election campaign in Slovenia. The conservative opposition accuses the coalition parties of exploiting the issue for electoral purposes. The coalition, on the other hand, criticizes the right-wing conservative SDS for allowing itself to be influenced by Israel. The party of Slovenian ex-prime minister Janez Janša, who is considered a supporter of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, believes that recognizing Palestine at this point in time is premature and warns of long-term damage for Slovenia. The SDS criticizes that the government is in a hurry with the recognition in order to score points in the European elections.

"The government's proposal to recognize Palestine ten days before the elections is a reprehensible exploitation of dead Palestinian children for political purposes," Janša wrote on the X platform (formerly Twitter) last week, when the government made the decision on recognition. With its referendum motion, the SDS is now giving the government additional time to consider the matter thoroughly and with a cool head, the opposition leader argued.

The recognition of Palestine was also hotly debated on Monday evening in the televised debate between the EU's leading candidates. In the heated discussion on the private channel POP TV, Israel's alleged influence on the SDS was also highlighted. Liberal MEP Klemen Grošelj and his Social Democrat parliamentary colleague Matjaž Nemec spoke of Israeli interference in Slovenian domestic politics. They were referring to statements made by Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz on X.

Katz had criticized the Slovenian government's decision as a reward for the terrorist organization Hamas and stressed, among other things, that it damaged the "close friendship" between the Slovenian and Israeli peoples. "I hope the Slovenian parliament rejects this recommendation," Katz wrote, adding Janša's X username. "Israel's foreign minister has thus influenced the actions of Slovenian domestic politics. Mr. Janša acted as he was told by his Israeli colleagues," Nemec said in the TV debate.

Some political observers are also of the opinion that the government accelerated the recognition procedure partly because of the European elections in order to mobilize its own voters. It had originally planned to make a decision by June 13 at the latest. It cannot be ruled out that the SDS's delaying maneuver will further motivate liberal and left-wing voters. According to surveys, the majority of public opinion in Slovenia is in favor of recognizing Palestine. As the pollster Andraž Zorko emphasized to the news portal "Necenzurirano", Palestine is an important issue for the left-wing political camp. "What migrants are for the right-wing camp, Palestine is for the left," he said.