Ljublbana: Slovenian opposition parties on Thursday filed an impeachment motion against President Danilo Turk, the first since the small alpine country declared independence in 1991.
But observers said the move -- which came after Turk awarded a state decoration to the former head of the communist secret police, Tomaz Ertl -- was unlikely to succeed.
"The President violated the Constitution by awarding a state decoration to Tomaz Ertl who is directly responsible for human rights violations (during the former communist regime)," the centre-right Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) and Slovenian Popular Party (SLS) said in a joint statement on Thursday.
"Parliament should ask the constitutional court to remove Turk from the President`s post," SDS leader and former prime minister Janez Jansa also told journalists.
Turk, who was attending the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, did not react to the news.
But his cabinet responded in a statement that it was "an offence to the President`s institution”.
"The impeachment motion is not founded. The President did not violate the Constitution nor any law," it said.
Centre-left Prime Minister Borut Pahor also defended Turk`s right to choose whom to reward and added this could hardly be the ground for impeachment.
PTI
