Taraba Wanted to Oust Bitto Ciganikova as Chair of House Health Committee

Bratislava, May 4 (TASR) - Some coalition lawmakers lent their support to the motion to put the potential ouster of Jana Bitto Ciganikova (SaS) from the post of House Health Committee chair up for a vote at the current session of Parliament. SaS caucus chair Anna Zemanova found the motion surprising and will discuss it with chairs of other coalition caucuses. OLaNO caucus head Michal Sipos claimed that he will talk about the vote with OLaNO lawmakers. The motion was tabled by independent MP Tomas Taraba, formerly affiliated with far-right People's Party Our Slovakia. "I'm quite surprised by this, as we've had a deal not to engage in personnel policies of each other," Zemanova told TASR. She claimed that such a function is reserved strictly for SaS and Parliament had elected Bitto Ciganikova to the post. Zemanova believes that coalition lawmakers from other parties have no business meddling in SaS personnel policy. The motion to put the ouster of Bitto Ciganikova up for the vote garnered support from lawmakers Jan Herak, Lucia Drabikova and Karol Kucera (all OLaNO), Patrick Linhart and Martin Borgula (both We Are Family) and Miriam Sutekova (For the People), while a number of OLaNO MPs chose not to vote. The proposal was ultimately rejected by the House. mf