SaS Files Criminal Complaint over Parliament's Failure to Debate Ousters

Bratislava, 26 January (TASR) - The opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party is filing a criminal complaint on suspicion of sabotage, as Parliament hasn't been able to debate submitted motions for dismissing individual cabinet members or the cabinet as a whole, party MP Maria Kolikova told a briefing held in front of the Prosecutor-General's Office on Monday. She added that the governing coalition has been deliberately avoiding these items on the agenda, with some motions waiting in Parliament for more than a year now. "We're facing truly unprecedented conduct by the governing coalition. For several months now, and in some cases for more than a year, the governing coalition hasn't allowed Parliament to hold the government accountable," she said, adding that the government must appear before Parliament if at least one fifth of MPs request the ouster of any minister or want to express no-confidence in the whole government. The party believes the primary responsibility lies with House Chair Richard Rasi (Voice-SD). "By not debating these motions, the constitutional dimension of parliamentary control over the government is being hollowed out. Instead of placing these points as first or high enough on the agenda where there's a chance to discuss them, he [Rasi] places them at the very end. Furthermore, the coalition schedules them for times when it's likely that Parliament won't be sitting or will be discussing something else, and they even postpone these items or remove them from the agenda of parliamentary sessions," explained SaS MP Ondrej Dostal. SaS reiterated that if MPs submit a motion of no confidence in the entire government or one of its members, the session should be convened within seven days. "Unfortunately, as we've seen during the tenure of this government, the sessions have been thwarted even after being convened," said Kolikova, recalling that Parliament is due to debate motions seeking the ouster of Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok, Health Minister Kamil Sasko (both Voice-SD), Culture Minister Martina Simkovicova, Environment Minister Tomas Taraba (both Slovak National Party/SNS nominees) and Investment Minister Samuel Migal (Independent). The proposal to hold a no-confidence motion in the government emerged back in January. jrg/df