PS May Appeal to Constitutional Court If Ousters Repeatedly Postponed

Bratislava, 11 June (TASR) - The opposition Progressive Slovakia (PS) party isn't ruling out approaching the Constitutional Court if opposition motions to dismiss individual ministers continue to be delayed in Parliament for months or even a year, PS leader Michal Simecka stated at a press conference on Thursday, adding that he expects that proposals for dismissals will pile up at the next session in September and that Parliament won't have time to discuss them. Simecka anticipates tension within the coalition at the September session, as the draft budget for next year is also scheduled to be addressed. "I expect that Parliament will be gridlocked, that they won't be able to move forward with the agenda, so logically they'll postpone the dismissals. But then a possible motion to the Constitutional Court will also come into play. Because, to play the role of a constitutional lawyer - which I'm not - the mere fact that they aren't convening extraordinary sessions is apparently not unconstitutional, but if they keep this up for a year, then in my view there is room for the Constitutional Court to weigh in on the matter," he stated, noting that last year also saw votes of no-confidence in members of the government being postponed for several months. According to PS, the coalition rejects the established practice of allowing the opposition to debate in the House motions of no-confidence against individual members of the government or the entire government. "Coalition MPs, even if they don't like it, should allow ministers facing an ouster to defend themselves in the plenary session. That's how it worked under the previous government, and that's how it worked under earlier governments, but now Robert Fico and his ministers have decided that they won't participate because they're afraid, because they can't defend themselves. That's what undermines this institution," noted Simecka. In recent days, extraordinary sessions have failed to deliberate on motions to dismiss Environment Minister Tomas Taraba (a Slovak National Party/SNS nominee), Defence Minister Robert Kalinak, Agriculture Minister Richard Takac (both Smer-SD), and Education Minister Tomas Drucker (Voice-SD). Parliament didn't have a quorum, as coalition MPs didn't attend. The motions have been postponed for discussion in September. The coalition has announced that it won't support convening a session to dismiss Finance Minister Ladislav Kamenicky (Smer-SD) and Investment Minister Samuel Migal (Independent). If more such motions are submitted, an extraordinary session will probably be convened to discuss them all at once, stated Voice-SD parliamentary caucus head Robert Puci. am/df