Monitor: Richter: Coalition Council to Focus on Draft State Budget on Monday

(STVR, 'O 5 minut 12', 20 September) Speaking on STVR's discussion programme 'O 5 minut 12' (Five Minutes to Twelve) on Sunday, Smer-SD parliamentary caucus chair Jan Richter stated that during the Coalition Council's meeting on Monday (21 September), the parties will discuss, as the main item on the agenda, the draft state budget for 2027 which he said will be "99 percent final" when submitted to Parliament. He believes that the vote on the budget in Parliament will not be tied to a vote of confidence in the government. According to him, the coalition rejects drawing up a budget that would scrap existing social support measures for the public. "Despite the coalition's internal difficulties and the fact that we cannot always agree on everything, I would say that the budget proposal to be presented to the Coalition Council tomorrow will be 99 percent final. The outcome of this budget will be that we'll hand over much healthier public finances than those we inherited after the [2023] election," explained Richter. Also on the show, opposition Progressive Slovakia (PS) MP Zuzana Mesterova said that the government is going to present a "campaign budget", with each coalition party now seeking to deliver on the promises shown on billboards. "First of all, it needs to be said that the situation is extremely serious and that the governing coalition is clearly getting ready for the campaign, because this is going to be an irresponsible campaign budget. However, the Council for Budget Responsibility (RRZ) has repeatedly said that this governing coalition is violating its constitutional obligations and, considering the level of public debt, it should first of all submit a balanced budget," she said, adding that this obligation is based on Slovakia's constitutional debt brake legislation. Mesterova stressed that the current government has long ignored the obligation to present pro-growth measures. "It did not present pro-growth measures in 2025, nor has it presented pro-growth measures to date in 2026 in order to show how it intends to deal with the growing (public) debt," she stated. Richter said that he did not know whether Finance Minister Ladislav Kamenicky (Smer-SD) was working on a balanced budget in parallel with the actual budget proposal for 2027. Mesterova stated that the coalition is not managing public finances in a way that would put Slovakia's public debt on a downward path, describing such conduct as dangerous. jrg