The minority government faces a tough no-confidence vote on Tuesday, with its future in the hands of a few undecided National Council members, with experts stating the vote is purely about survival as the government stopped governing long ago.
“We have a continuing chaos and instability since 2021. They are reflected in the high levels of distrust and dissatisfaction among citizens. I don’t think chaos and instability can get much worse after a government falls,” former prime minister Iveta Radičová commented.
Prime Minister Eduard Heger’s (OĽaNO) government lost a majority at the end of summer after smaller (former) coalition member Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) unsuccessfully demanded the resignation of Finance Minister and Heger’s predecessor Igor Matovič. When Matovič decided not to step down, Freedom and Solidarity left the government.
Since then, the government has managed to survive and pass their legislative proposals with the help of three independent National Council members led by Tomáš Taraba, who was elected on the list of the far-right Our Slovakia People’s Right but later left the party.
Their support, however, has often been traded for coalition support for their proposals. This time, three MPs demanded the coalition to vote for the revision of the criminal law, which would see a decrease in penalties for financial crimes in exchange for their support of the next year’s budget. Coalition refused as it contradicts their pre-election promises to “wipe out corruption”, and three MPs said they “might” vote against the government in the upcoming vote.
The no-confidence vote has been tabled by Freedom and Solidarity, who say the government failed in serving the people and stopped fighting against corruption, which was one of the last reasons why many people still supported it, along with its pro-western foreign policy.
Most experts agree with Freedom and Solidarity, saying the government failed in fighting corruption as evidenced by their coalition member – the We Are Family party, which has several of their members already accused of corruption. One of them – National Council member Martin Borguľa – claims he will vote against the government on Tuesday.
(Michal Hudec | EURACTIV.sk)
Source: euractiv.com
