Michelko Expects President Not to Sign Amendment to Gambling Act

(TA3,'V politike', 26 October) Speaking on TA3's discussion programme 'V politike' (In Politics) on Sunday, coalition MP Roman Michelko (Slovak National Party/SNS) said that he expects President Peter Pellegrini not to sign an amendment to the Gambling Act and return it to Parliament. In such a case, SNS doesn't want to participate in overriding the president's veto. "We most likely won't support overriding the president's veto. Otherwise, I don't know how we would explain our voting to our voters. So if the president returns it, SNS won't be among the votes that will override the president's veto," said Michelko. At the same time, he said that it was impossible to exclude local governments from the procedure of this law, which is why an amending proposal was approved, enabling municipalities to express their opinion on extension of a respective casino license. Opposition MP Marian Caucik (Christian Democrats/KDH), also on the show, criticised the amendment, saying that it was approved in a fast-track legislative procedure, because licenses of some casinos are set to expire next week. Opposition MP Beata Jurik (Progressive Slovakia/PS) stated that there was an absolute chaos in Parliament around the vote on this amendment. She criticised SNS, saying that if it had reservations about the law, it shouldn't have participated in the vote. At the same time, the opposition has called on the president not to sign the law and return it to Parliament. Coalition MP Marian Kery (Smer-SD) criticised SNS for taking the vote on this law too personally due to the bad relations between House Vice-chair Andrej Danko (SNS) and Tourism and Sports Minister Rudolf Huliak (Independent). ko