[Video] The mother board in the early hours of the morning passed the SCOTUS bill

The National Assembly's Justice Committee passed legislation establishing the SKOK unit early Monday morning after a lengthy debate and fierce opposition from the opposition parties (Freedom, SD, and Left). The session began on Friday at 2 p.m., with voting taking place on Monday at 2:54 a.m. Nine of the 15 committee members voted in favor of the law, while six opposed it. Support came from the governing coalition parties (SDS, NSi, SLS, Fokus, Democrats, and Resni.ca), while Freedom, SD, and Left opposed it. The session was marked by several incidents. Committee chairman Andrej Poglajen (SDS) posted on X that Freedom MP Lena Grgurevič was "in all her glory." He wrote that the session had to be interrupted due to disruptions, interruptions, and complaints. After the interruption, he noted that someone turned on the microphone for political showmanship and shouted: "This is dictatorship by Janez Janša, SDS!" He added that when arguments run dry, political culture speaks. Opposition parties did not submit any amendments to the proposed law. Members of the committee accepted all amendments from the governing coalition, including one that delayed the implementation of the law by half a year, setting its start date to July 1, 2027. Originally, the law would have taken effect on January 1 of next year. Opposition parties Freedom, SD, and Left submitted no amendments to the proposal. The new law will rename the Specialized State Prosecution (SDT) to the Specialized Prosecution for Combating Corruption and Organized Crime. It will redefine the list of criminal acts, change certain responsibilities regarding the appointment of free positions and the evaluation of prosecutors, and establish a specialized court for cases involving corruption and organized crime. According to the proposal, the Supreme Court in Maribor will exclusively handle appeals in these matters. MPs from the governing coalition highlighted during the discussion that the proposal needed to be adopted through an urgent procedure because Slovenia loses 3.5 billion euros annually due to corruption, or 10 million euros per day. They also pointed out the long duration of the most complex procedures related to corruption and organized crime. According to current data from the European Commission, the average duration of some such criminal proceedings in Slovenia has increased significantly. For corruption cases, the average duration before courts of first instance was nearly 600 days. Committee chairman Andrej Poglajen emphasized that the law on specialized bodies for handling corruption-related criminal acts and organized crime (the SKOK law) represents a step in the right direction, given that Slovenia has recently found itself in a spiral of corruption with no visible bottom. However, the opposition raised concerns that the proposed legal solutions were weak and unsuitable for addressing the issue. They did not submit any amendments to the proposal. MP Zoran Mojškerc (SDS) noted that the opposition parties (Freedom, SD, and Left) made numerous criticisms of the proposal but did not prepare any amendments to it. Tina Brecelj from the Left responded that they did not do so because their proposals would mean redrawing all sections of the law. Therefore, for them, corruption is not an issue. Freedom MP Lucija Tacer Perlin identified Article 4 of the proposal as the most problematic, which reduces the influence of the State Prosecution Council in selecting candidates for state prosecutors.