Parliament Lacks Quorum to Start Debating Taraba's Ouster

Bratislava, 1 June (TASR) - MPs failed to initiate a special parliamentary session regarding the motion to dismiss Environment Minister Tomas Taraba (a Slovak National Party/SNS nominee), as Parliament lacked a quorum with only 62 MPs present in the chamber even during the second attempt on Monday. House Vice-chair Andrej Danko (SNS) announced that MPs will attempt to open the session on Tuesday (2 June) at 8:00 a.m. Taraba's ouster was initiated by the opposition Progressive Slovakia (PS) party, as the minister failed to take responsibility for the zoning plan proposed for national parks when he said that it was prepared by nominees at the ministry. PS argues that the failures in the preparation of the zoning plan could lead to the loss of nearly half a billion euros from the Recovery Plan. The opposition also pointed out that Taraba has lost the confidence of both SNS as the coalition party that nominated him, as well as his closest colleagues at the Environment Ministry. In the motion for Taraba's dismissal, the opposition also criticised him for "forcing" experts out of the ministry, as well as for not taking the crisis situation concerning drought seriously, given that Slovakia is facing its driest period in decades. According to the opposition, Taraba has also failed to handle the situation with bears, as the number of bear attacks has not decreased since he took office. They also warned that Taraba halted projects aimed at protecting public health, such as the initiative to improve air quality in Jelsava (Banska Bystrica region) and the Gemer area. jrg