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01:26

The Slovenian recognition of the state of Palestine is being heavily criticized by opposition parties in a move that could even lead to the decision being reversed.

Slovenia is - after Spain, Norway and Ireland - the latest European nation to officially recognize Palestine. But the country's opposition says the procedure was unlawful.

"They did it with violation of the rules of procedure of the Slovenian parliament," Janez Pogorelec from the NSi party, told CGTN.

Flags of Palestine, Slovenia and the EU on a Ljubljana street. /CGTN

Seku Conde, who presents one of the country's major news shows on RTV Slovenija, expects the opposition to take further action. "The constitutional court could decide that the procedure was wrong. We might even end up the recognition being revoked," Conde said.

According to a small newspaper poll of 600 people, the majority of Slovenians agree with the recognition of Palestinian statehood.

"This is the only political and diplomatic tool we currently have to pressure the Israeli government, and also pressure Hamas, to start negotiating for peace," Slovenia's Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon told CGTN on Tuesday right after the parliament passed the recognition motion.

Slovenia foreign minister Tanja Fajon said Palestinian recognition was the government's only diplomatic tool. /CGTN

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Fajon urged other European countries to follow the example of Slovenia and also recognize the state of Palestine.

Previously, the Slovenian government compared the Palestinian fight for independence to Slovenia's own struggles in the 1990s when the small central European country declared independence from Yugoslavia.