Janša announces voluntary RTV fee, but SDS has no idea how to collect it

After the consultative referendum on abolishing the mandatory RTV fee, the licence fee for the public broadcaster RTV Slovenija, Prime Minister Janez Janša wrote on X that the fee will now be paid by those who want to pay it. His party, the Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS), does not know how this is supposed to work. SDS MP Alenka Jeraj admitted to reporters in the National Assembly (DZ) that she has no answer.

"It is hard for me to explain, because I do not yet know how we will do it." (translated)

According to partial unofficial data, the referendum result was extremely close, with opponents of abolition holding a small lead. From this Janša concludes that the government must follow the will of both halves.

"People backed what they wanted. And the government must follow that will. So the RTV fee will be paid by those who want to pay it. Or those for whom it is a common good. (...) Those for whom it is not a common good, simply will not." (translated)

Pay after signing up?

Jeraj mentioned only one option: that people who want to pay would register themselves. But she immediately added that they have no final answer yet and will have to "come up with some Solomonic solution". She rejected the accusation that this would punish those who voted differently from the coalition. She did admit that it raises legal and other dilemmas, and that she does not know what such a practice would mean for future referendums, in which some voters will be for and some against.

SDS vice president Aleš Hojs went further: in his view, those who want to pay should even pay more.

"It is right that those who do not want to and will not, do not do it, and those who want to should do it, as far as we are concerned even at double the amount." (translated)

On the programme 24ur Zvečer, Hojs added, according to Nova24TV, that a law will have to be passed that lets the half that wants to pay do so, and stops forced payment for the other half.

Resnica's bill waits in committee

The referendum was consultative, so it binds no one. But an amendment to the RTV Act, filed by Resnica with voters' signatures, is already in the National Assembly. It provides for abolishing the fee and funding RTV from the state budget. Jeraj did not say whether SDS will back it. According to her, the parliamentary group has not yet discussed it, and the party also needs to talk to National Assembly Speaker Zoran Stevanović about whether he will stick with the proposal.

The proposal was already on the agenda of the culture committee, chaired by Jeraj herself, at the start of September. Stevanović withdrew it on behalf of the proponents until the referendum. Once the proponents demand that it continue, Jeraj will have 15 days to call a session.

Vrečko: patients would pay for oncology

Levica co-coordinator Asta Vrečko replied that this understanding of the state undermines the principle of solidarity.

"Saying that only referendum supporters should pay for RTV is roughly like saying that primary schools and kindergartens should be funded only by parents of small children, oncology only by the taxes of the sick and their families, and the restoration of church cultural heritage only by believers, and so on." (translated)

She added that under the constitution Slovenia is a welfare state.

RTV Slovenija director general Natalija Gorščak, as reported by Nova24TV, said the narrow result gives politicians no legitimacy to abolish the fee. In her words, the fee is the only stable part of the funding, and in twelve years it has been raised only once, by ten percent.

Who will pay, who will not, and who will check it is not known for now. Only SDS can answer, and it says it does not know yet.