Most-Hid: Early Election Should Be Discussed at Coalition Council

Bratislava, March 23 (TASR) - If Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini (Smer-SD) believes that the government dispute over the planned Defence Cooperation Agreement (DCA) with the USA can only be resolved via an early general election, then this option must be discussed by the Coalition Council, co-governing Most-Hid stated on Saturday. A dispute has emerged in the Government between the main party Smer-SD (which has under its remit the Foreign and European Affairs Ministry, favouring the DCA) and the Slovak National Party (SNS), which has the Defence Ministry. The latter rejects the agreement for allegedly paving the way for long-term presence of US troops in Slovakia. Pellegrini on Friday didn't rule out an early election to resolve the dispute, with SNS on Saturday reacting that if the prime minister really doesn't see any other solution, it will also back this option. Most-Hid later on Saturday stated that it would have preferred to see an earlier initiative by the prime minister concerning DCA, as well as more engagement in the election of Constitutional Court judges in Parliament, which has been dealt with since early January without any result. The Constitutional Court has thus had only four judges out of 13 for more than a month after the term of nine judges expired without replacement. "The ability and interest to preserve high-level responsibility and appropriate attitudes are benchmarks of political maturity. In our opinion, it would have been appropriate to convene the Coalition Council (Smer, SNS and Most-Hid) before making statements to the press," said Most-Hid spokesperson Klara Debnar. bub