Richter: Replacing EU Affairs Committee Head Possible If Coalition Keeps 79 MPs

Bratislava, 25 November (TASR) - MPs of the senior coalition Smer-SD party will support all government bills at the 43rd parliamentary session, including a proposal to replace the chair of the House committee for European affairs, if the coalition maintains 79 votes after the shuffle, head of the Smer caucus Jan Richter told a press conference on Tuesday. He added that the coalition Voice-SD party has communicated its intention to submit a proposal to replace House committee chair Jan Ferencak with Peter Kmec, who recently resigned as Vice-premier for the Recovery Plan and a Knowledge-based Economy. "The position of our caucus is that we respect the coalition agreement, according to which the post belongs to Voice-SD, but we're calling on our colleagues from Voice-SD, even publicly, to act responsibly. Our support depends on whether 79 coalition MPs will be guaranteed," said Richter. Richter declared that Smer MPs will support government bills and wants the coalition to act in unison. Some bills are still being discussed within the coalition, in particular the amendment to the Gambling Act vetoed by President Peter Pellegrini. Items on the agenda that require fast-tracked legislative procedures will be a priority, said Richter, noting that there are quite a few of them lined up already, with more to be added later. Commenting on the opposition's proposals for no-confidence votes in several ministers and the entire cabinet, Richter recalled that if Parliament gets to this item on the agenda, the proposals will be discussed in a joint debate. Richter doesn't know whether MPs will address the vetoed COVID amnesty bill and said that the debate on annual reports will depend on how the parliamentary session proceeds. jrg/df