KDH to Seek House Chair Rasi's Ouster If Parliamentary Chaos Continues

Bratislava, 17 March (TASR) - If House Chair Richard Rasi (Voice-SD) doesn't meet President Peter Pellegrini to address the disruption of parliamentary democracy and chaos in Parliament, Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) MPs will start collecting signatures for his ouster, KDH Chairman Milan Majersky told a press conference on Tuesday. He added that Rasi bears full responsibility for the state that Parliament is in, slamming him and the president for their failure to hold a meeting on legislative processes which was scheduled to take place on Monday (16 March). KDH is also criticising the chaos in Parliament, as also shown by the Criminal Code amendment that is currently being debated in Parliament and includes the protection of war graves and memorials, as well as several proposals attached in order to amend other legislation, the so-called 'riders'. "Even House Vice-chair Andrej Danko (Slovak National Party/SNS) has criticised these riders," said Majersky, adding that the coalition is about to use a rider to repeal the law on the transformation of the Whistleblowers Protection Office (UOO) into a new office. "I don't think we've ever seen such incompetence," said the KDH chair, noting that the issue of scrapping UOO took several days of parliamentary debate at the end of 2025 that could have been spent on approving other necessary bills. In the end, however, the entire law will be "tossed in the bin", said Majersky. KDH stressed that Parliament should instead be focusing on the economic situation faced by the public. "However, this isn't happening, and the parliamentary speaker is directly accountable for this. He sets the agenda and is responsible for what is debated in the plenary," said Majersky. He also commented on a proposal to remove Tibor Gaspar (Smer-SD) from the post of parliamentary vice-chair. "It's unacceptable for this post to be held by someone who will be nipping out of Parliament and heading straight to the dock in court," said Majersky. The dismissal attempt was initiated by the opposition, which expressed concerns that Gaspar might be misusing his parliamentary role to advance measures to assist himself in his own criminal case. As an ex-police chief, Gaspar has been indicted in the Purgatory case involving 11 defendants facing charges for a total of 20 offences. However, lawmakers didn't debate the dismissal proposal at a special emergency session on Tuesday, as the session's agenda wasn't approved. jrg/df