Opposition Sees Coalition Fear behind Adjournment of No-confidence Motions

Bratislava, 10 December (TASR) - The opposition has criticised the move to adjourn the debates on proposals to dismiss several ministers and the government as a whole until the parliamentary session in January, attributing this move to fear within the coalition, opposition MPs told journalists in Parliament on Wednesday, adding that the opposition's fundamental constitutional rights have been trampled upon. "I'm afraid that we may never get to dismissing the ministers and the government, and that elections will come sooner, with this government ending its term via a democratic election before we even have the chance to confront and dismiss it in Parliament. It is the height of cowardice, showing contempt for voters and for the Constitution, which guarantees this tool. Today, in my view, there was also the fear that one of those ministers could actually be dismissed because the coalition is so unstable and is quarrelling among itself," said Progressive Slovakia (PS) leader Michal Simecka. The adjournment was also criticised by the MPs from the 'Slovakia' party caucus and party leader Igor Matovic. "This is a serious situation because for over a year now the opposition has been unable to exercise its fundamental constitutional right. A motion to dismiss a minister is in fact the opposition's fundamental constitutional right. Rather than being a standard democracy, Slovakia is now starting showing signs of dictatorship in which the governing power, by having a majority, usurps the opposition's rights," said Matovic. Chairman of the Christian Democrats (KDH) Milan Majersky said that it's very likely that KDH will ask the Constitutional Court to decide on the matter. "The governing coalition is ignoring the Constitution and is also ignoring the opposition as such. However, we're also witnessing the fact that [Prime Minister] Robert Fico isn't in control of the whole situation and is afraid that one of his coalition partners might fail during one of the no-confidence votes, and that's precisely why they keep adjourning this debate from month to month," said Majersky. MPs were supposed to deal with the motions of dismissal of six ministers and the government as a whole as of 2 p.m. on Wednesday. However, they approved the coalition's proposal to adjourn the debates until the next session, which is due to start on 27 January. The motions were submitted in succession by the opposition over previous months. Special sessions to deal with no-confidence motions in the ministers were not quorate, so they were gradually included in the agendas of regular sessions. However, the proposals haven't yet come to the table, being repeatedly adjourned from one session to another. jrg/df