Slovenia has officially recognized Palestine. After complications with the manoeuvres of the Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS), the MPs rejected their proposal to call a consultative referendum. Members of the opposition SDS and New Slovenia (NSi) obstructed the meeting.

Slovenia became the 144th country to recognize Palestine as an independent and sovereign state. The government initially announced that it would send the decision to parliament by June 13 at the latest, but it has accelerated the process.

Prime Minister Robert Golob announced during an official visit to Algeria that the government would propose recognition before that date.

According to N1 Slovenia, the recognition of the Arab state was followed by the manoeuvres of the SDS, which on Monday sent a proposal to the parliamentary procedure to call a consultative referendum on the recognition of Palestine. With this action, they wanted to postpone the decision for 30 days.

The coalition sought legal loopholes in the Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly, through which Palestine could still be recognized. A few minutes before the start of the extraordinary session, the SDS withdrew the proposal to call a consultative referendum and then submitted it again during the session.

Because of this, the Speaker of the National Assembly, Urska Klakocar Zupancic, interrupted the 73rd extraordinary session of the National Assembly. The Parliamentary Committee for Foreign Policy then adopted the opinion that a referendum on this topic was not appropriate. MPs rejected the proposal to call a consultative referendum and recognized Palestine at the 74th extraordinary session.