After losing the no confidence vote last month, Eduard Heger, a centre-right Slovak Prime Minister, was temporarily acting as a caretaker. Heger stated Monday that he would attempt to form a new majority in parliament over the next few days to finish his four-year term.
Freedom and Solidarity, a libertarian coalition member, overthrew Heger’s government in September. They voted against the cabinet together with other deputies from government during a December election.
Some politicians, including members of the current coalition, have called for an election in 2019. Heger said that he believes that he could form a majority.
Heger made recorded comments to reporters, stating that his goal was to obtain 76 votes so we could continue to the end.
He said that he believed that his centre-right, Christian OLANO party would win support from his coalition partner Sme Rodina (“We Are Family”), and that it was reaching towards the SaS party.
An election cannot be held before the February 2024 elections. Current rules state that the 150-seat parliament must have 90 votes to amend or repeal the constitution in order to move the vote forward.
The clashes with OLANO Finance Minister Igor Matovic led to the SaS leaving the ruling coalition. This was primarily due to the frequent clashes. Matovic was forced from his caretaker cabinet to accept the support of SaS for the December 2023 budget.
“The SaS clearly communicated the intention of removing Igor Matovic (from the government) He stated that Igor Matovic wasn’t a minister at the moment so I don’t see any problem with them supporting this.”
Heger’s path towards a majority could be complicated by splits within the parties or unclear views from independents.
A 21-January referendum could help facilitate transition to early elections. It would amend the constitution to only require 76 votes to form parliament. If turnout falls below 50%, the referendum could be invalidated, just as in other cases.
This article is shared:
EU Reporter publishes articles sourced from many outside sources that reflect a broad range of views. These articles do not necessarily reflect the views of EU Reporter.
