SaS Insists Government Legally Bound to Support Anti-Russian Sanctions

Bratislava, 14 July (TASR) - The opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party is insisting that the government is legally bound to support EU sanctions against Russia as of Friday (July 11). Its MP Vladimira Marcinkova told a news conference on Monday, the validity of this commitment results from the Constitutional Act on Cooperation between Parliament and the Government in EU Affairs, which allows one-fifth of MPs to propose a binding position, which if Parliament doesn't change it within 14 days, automatically takes effect. "The only legitimate way out of this situation is to convene a session of the EU affairs committee that would adopt a stance on it. And until they do so, there's a legal opinion that my position is valid," said Marcinkova. However, governing Smer-SD representatives would rather question the procedure that they themselves brought into politics than admit that someone has managed to outfox them, she said. Marcinkova pointed out that it was current Premier Robert Fico (Smer-SD) who came up with such a procedure in 2023. She noted that when Fico made use of the same procedure in the past, the committee under her leadership took action to avoid legal uncertainty. "At that time we took note of the position and acted in time. Today, the governing coalition hasn't taken note of my position, as it was unable even to convene a committee session - its MPs are on vacation, have no substitutes and were unable to act," she said. SaS has called on Premier Fico and Foreign Affairs Minister Juraj Blanar (Smer-SD) to respect the valid position on Parliament and vote to adopt sanctions against Russia at the next EU Council meeting. Fico said on Saturday that the opposition MPs' proposal has no legal legitimacy and that they will not deal with the the draft resolution via which the opposition claims to have obliged the government to support anti-Russian sanctions. ko/df