Monitor: Pellegrini: Shortening Terms via Referendum Should Be Possible

(STVR, 'Sobotne dialogy', 28 March) Speaking on STVR's politics programme 'Sobotne dialogy' (Saturday Dialogues), President Peter Pellegrini said that the Slovak Constitution should include the possibility of shortening Parliament's electoral term via a referendum. He stated that he is currently reviewing a petition from the extra-parliamentary Democrats party to call a referendum on shortening the current government's electoral term. "If the people have the right to grant power to politicians, they should also have the right to take that power away from them at any time if they break their promises or fail to govern the country as the nation desires," stated Pellegrini. However, he noted that the Constitutional Court has already issued a decision on this matter following a previous motion submitted by former president Zuzana Caputova, ruling that a referendum cannot be used to shorten the electoral term of a government. Therefore, the future of such referendums may have been determined by the Democrats themselves during the government of then-Prime Minister Eduard Heger (currently the vice-chair of the Democrats), because coalition MPs did not support a proposal to amend the Constitution at that time. According to another Constitutional Court ruling, stated Pellegrini, MPs cannot be forced to vote as instructed by a referendum "because they hold an inviolable mandate to vote based on their own conscience". As regards the second question of the petition, Pellegrini believes it meets the necessary criteria, but argued that the referendum should not be reduced to the possibility of reinstating the National Crime Agency (NAKA) or scrapping Prime Minister Robert Fico's (Smer-SD) lifetime annuity. "That would be a rather expensive public opinion poll," remarked Pellegrini. He added that he will decide on the referendum within the statutory time limit, noting that constitutional rulings must be respected. "Therefore, I will consider how to handle those questions. It's not my obligation to refer the matter to the Constitutional Court; it's simply one of the options," concluded Pellegrini. jrg