The Democratic Party of Slovenia proposed on Monday that an advisory referendum be held on the issue, which would have postponed the recognition vote by 30 days.
In Slovenia, the country’s parliament has recognized the state of Palestine. The parliament voted on the issue on Tuesday evening, despite the conservative opposition’s push to delay the recognition of a Palestinian state.
52 of the members of the 90-seat parliament supported the recognition of Palestine. The rest of the parliament members did not participate in the vote, so no votes against recognition were given.
The former prime minister Janez Janšan the conservative Democratic Party of Slovenia proposed holding an advisory referendum yesterday on the recognition of Palestine. This would have delayed the recognition vote by 30 days.
According to the proposal, Slovenia should have stood by the EU countries, which say that now is not the right time to recognize Palestine.
However, according to the AP news agency, the party withdrew its proposal earlier on Tuesday, but later submitted another proposal, which was rejected by the parliament.
Speaker of the Parliament Urška Klakočar Zupančič said the opposition had abused the referendum mechanism and announced that the parliament would proceed with the recognition vote as planned. The speaker cited legal interpretations according to which the 30-day deadline only referred to bills and not, for example, recognition of a foreign state.
The three parties of the center-left government coalition have 51 seats in the parliament. They support the recognition of a Palestinian state as part of efforts to end the fighting in Gaza as soon as possible.
Spain, Ireland and Norway recognized Palestine
Last month, Spain, Ireland and Norway announced their recognition of the Palestinian state.
Israel said last week it hoped Slovenia’s parliament would vote against recognizing Palestine. Foreign minister by Israel Katz recognition would be a reward for the extremist organization Hamas, which attacked Israel last October.
Slovenia was one of the 16 EU countries that had not yet recognized Palestine. Finland, Germany, France and Italy, among others, have not recognized Palestine as a member of the Union. Out of the 193 member states of the UN, Palestine has been recognized by more than 140 countries so far.
Israel’s disastrous military operation in Gaza has given new impetus to diplomatic efforts to promote a two-state solution in the Middle East.
Sources: Reuters, AP, AFP