KDH Welcomes President's Criticism of Flawed Legislative Process

Bratislava, 19 March (TASR) – The opposition Christian Democrats (KDH) have welcomed President Peter Pellegrini's admission of the poor state of the legislative process, while urging him to use his powers to prevent breaches of parliamentary rules. KDH leader Milan Majersky said that it would be "passing the buck" to publicly criticise flawed government legislation while quietly signing it into law. "Mr. Pellegrini, in the coming days you have a unique opportunity to show that your press conference wasn't just an empty show and that you won't sign everything that the government puts before you. We in KDH will be watching closely," he stated. The party expects the president to start returning what it described as "legislative botches" to Parliament. Meanwhile, MP Maria Kolikova (SaS) said at a press conference on Wednesday that she didn't believe the president's statements, arguing that breaches of legislative rules continued as recently as Tuesday (17 March) and that the governing coalition has been bending legislative rules for the past two years. "Wasn't he here until now?, or didn't he see anything? This has been happening for two years since this governing coalition took office," she remarked. Kolikova pointed out that the government amended the Criminal Code at the start of the electoral term. She also noted that through an amending proposal, attached to legislation on graves, MPs repealed the law on Tuesday under which the Office for the Protection of Whistleblowers was to be abolished and replaced by a new body. On Wednesday, the president described the level of the legislative process and law-making in Slovakia as poor, calling on the government and Parliament to return to a standard legislative procedure. He also criticised the misuse of fast-track legislative procedures and the inclusion of unrelated amendments in draft laws. Pellegrini said that he would henceforth scrutinise such additions more strictly and veto them. mf/df