Voice for Children and Families
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Voice for Children and Families Glas za otroke in družine | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Leader | Aleš Primc |
| Founders | Aleš Primc and Metka Zevnik |
| Founded | 25 March 2017 |
| Headquarters | Stari trg 11a 1000 Ljubljana |
| Ideology | Christian democracy Political Catholicism Social conservatism Populism |
| Political position | Right-wing |
| National Assembly | 0 / 90 |
| European Parliament | 0 / 8 |
| Website | |
| http://www.zaotrokeindruzine.si/ | |
The Voice for Children and Families (Slovene: Glas za otroke in družine, short name ZA OTROKE!) is a right-wing Slovenian political party. The party was founded on 25 March 2017 by Aleš Primc and Metka Zevnik as an electoral arm of a movement of which they are also leaders of, the Movement for Children and Families,[1] the initial purpose of which was to overturn a law passed by the National Assembly which would recognize same sex marriage in the Republic of Slovenia.
The Movement, first called "Coalition For the Children!",[2] collected a sufficient number of signatures to declare a referendum challenging the new Marriage and Family Relations Act, as per article 90 of the Slovenia's constitution. The law was subsequently rejected when the referendum was held on 20 December 2015. Primc had since proposed an alternative law, which would grant more legal rights to same-sex couples, but would not recognize same-sex marriage or put same-sex couples them on an equal footing with opposite-sex couples regarding adoption.[3][4][5] The Movement has also proposed a law aimed mainly at prioritizing grandparents regarding adoption of children whose biological parents are deceased.[6] The intention to derive an electoral arm of the movement was hinted at subsequent to the referendum victory[7] and officially announced on 14 January 2017.[8]
The political party held its founding convention on 25 March 2017 in Škofja Loka. Aleš Primc was unanimously elected as party leader. Multiple prominent party officials stated that they expect divine assistance.[9][10][11][12][13]
In February 2018, it was revealed that the party would be joining forces with former Maribor mayor Franc Kangler's New People's Party of Slovenia to form United Right, an electoral alliance, to jointly contest the upcoming 2018 Slovene parliamentary election.[14][15] After it became obvious that the party's/coalition's electoral effort would end up a flop, Primc declared the party was no longer contesting the election and directed the party's voters to instead vote for "SDS or some other party of the Slovenian spring that has a chance to enter parliament".[16]
Political alignment and ties
Primc has stated that he is willing to work with all parties where there is common ground, but that he sees himself closer to the two conservative parliamentary parties; Slovene Democratic Party and New Slovenia.[17]
Primc also serves as president of "Committee 2014" (Slovene: "Odbor 2014"), an organization which mainly organized protests in front of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia, the central demand being the pardon of former prime minister and leader of the Slovene Democratic Party Janez Janša and others (allegedly wrongly) convicted of corruption in the Patria case.[18] Primc is also a founding member, has a seat on the board of, and is a frequent guest and contributor on Nova24TV,[19] a media company which has deep ties to SDS.
There has been speculation that the party will serve as a "satellite" of the largest parliamentary conservative party, the Slovene Democratic Party,[20][21] as a part of its effort to politically and electorally undermine the other parliamentary conservative party, New Slovenia, for its perceived disloyalty[22] (the parties had previously partnered in coalition governments and shared political ties, but have since seen a schism and a cooling of relations with NSi leadership stating that the two parties cannot work together as long as Janez Janša remains as leader of SDS).[23]
