Busy in the parliament: Liberals stirred up the waters! SaS is doing research, the meeting was not opened twice… the coalition is on strike – Topky.sk

Deputies of the National Council (NR) of the Slovak Republic failed to open a regular meeting on the first attempt. The plenum did not have a quorum. Only 64 deputies presented themselves at the beginning of the meeting. They will try to open the meeting again at half past ten. Apart from SaS, no opposition MPs were present either. However, the deputies failed to open the meeting even a second time. They didn’t even open the meeting a second time… How did the deputies vote? During the initial voting, even the majority of OĽaNO deputies did not vote, eleven deputies were in favor, one abstained and six deputies were absent. As for SaS deputies, not a single one of them was in the hall. Photo gallery (13) Source: NR SR From the We are family movement, only Romana Tabák was in favor, the other deputies did not vote and two were not present. Not a single Smer MP was in the hall either. Even the majority of unclassified deputies missed this vote. Only Miriam Šuteková from For the People was in favor, the remaining five MPs did not vote. Photo gallery (13) Source: NR SR Photo gallery (13) Source: NR SR Photo gallery (13) Source: NR SR The coalition is apparently on strike A similar scenario was repeated with slight variations during the second vote. Deputies thus failed to open a regular meeting even on the second attempt. The plenum was once again unable to come to a decision. Only 71 deputies presented themselves. At the opening of the meeting at 9:00, 9 members of OĽANO and Sme Rodina were absent. Only yesterday they agreed that they would take Friday and Monday off, they would only negotiate on Tuesday 🤓 That’s only if they wanted to say that we are not working… Posted by Sloboda a Solidarita on Wednesday, September 14, 2022 Coalition MPs are on strike and apparently they refuse to allow the survey that SaS is doing. Parliament Speaker Boris Kollár therefore postponed the meeting until Tuesday. He clarified that they agreed at the parliamentary committee that they would not negotiate on Friday (September 16). In addition to the SaS, even opposition MPs did not present themselves, and several members of the coalition were also absent. Photo gallery (13) Source: NR SR At the regular meeting, deputies should, among other things, discuss the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO. They should address, for example, the issue of taxation of gas pipelines or several amendments related to the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Slovak Republic and section 363 of the Criminal Code. Photo gallery (13) Source: NR SR Photo gallery (13) Source: NR SR Our procedure is not unusual Zemanová said yesterday that their planned procedure is not unusual and it will be a parliamentary survey of forces. “At the beginning, we will conduct a research with whom the coalition minority will govern, where they will find support to open the meeting,” she said. Ultimately, according to her, the meeting will be open. However, the SaS will not vote for a vote of no confidence when recalling the Minister of the Interior, Roman Mikulc. According to her, they will still discuss it in the parliamentary club, but they have tentatively agreed as follows. Photo gallery (13) Source: TASR/Jaroslav Novák OĽaNO has no agreements According to Šipoš, the OĽaNO movement is surprised that the SaS is going to block the regular session of the National Council in unison “with the mafia from HlasoSmer and the fascists”. “None of us kicked the SaS party out of the coalition. They decided to leave and now they have to decide for themselves whether they will harm Slovakia and the people in a difficult situation or whether they will fulfill their public promise to be a constructive opposition,” said Šipoš. Photo gallery (13) Source: TASR/Jaroslav Novák He added that OĽaNO has no agreements with anyone outside the triple coalition and its former deputies about presenting themselves at the meeting. “We believe that not malice, but the public interest and the effort to help people in difficult times will be the only criteria that all deputies will follow when voting,” he added. SaS wants the benefits of the coalition and the freedom of the opposition. The chairman of the We Are Family parliamentary club, Peter Pčolinský, thinks that the SaS wants to enjoy the benefits of the coalition party, but to have the freedom of expression as an opposition party. He noted that the SaS wants to keep the chairmen of the committees or the deputy speaker of the parliament, but they want to sit in the opposition. He repeated that if it is not possible to take measures, for example, to fight against rising prices, we must talk about early elections. We are a family, according to him, will not nominate politicians for the positions of state secretaries, they want it to be filled in a strictly non-partisan manner. The dismissal of Matovič is one of the possibilities that SaS is considering, they are preparing a proposal SaS MPs are preparing a proposal to dismiss OĽaNO leader Igor Matovič from the position of Minister of Finance. Anna Zemanová, the head of the SaS parliamentary club, told journalists on Tuesday. “It is one of the possibilities. We are preparing such a proposal,” said Zemanová. She did not want to specify who could sign the proposal. They want to seek support from former coalition MPs who decided to leave. He believes that other sane MPs from the coalition will realize that such a person cannot continue to be a member of the government they want to support. He thinks that a couple of other Matovič statuses will be enough for that. She has not yet said when they plan to file the motion. According to Sulík, it should be within a few days. They will not negotiate with fascists. “If they support, it will be supported, if not, then not,” Sulík said, adding that if it is not possible to reach out to the former coalition members, they will negotiate with the Hlas party. Photo gallery (13) Source: TASR/Jaroslav Novák Matovič responded that he was keeping his fingers crossed for the head of SaS, Richard Sulík, to show “who is kicking for whom”. He pointed out that “the fraternization of the mafia from Hlasosmer, fascists from the Republic” and people from SaS was already evident in the parliamentary committees. “I am very sorry, because this was criticized in our country,” he said, recalling the complaints when non-affiliated deputies from the Republic supported the pro-family package. During the motion to recall Matovič, there was talk of the possibility that Matovič would be recalled and SaS would return to the coalition. Sulík would be willing to return. Hlas is willing to support the recall The head of the We Are Family parliamentary club, Peter Pčolinský, said that the We Are Family deputies will not add signatures to the motion to recall Matovič. In order to convene an extraordinary meeting on the dismissal of a member of the government, 30 signatures from deputies must be obtained. Non-affiliated MPs working in the non-parliamentary Hlas-SD are willing to negotiate with SaS on the motion to dismiss Matovič. First, however, they want to ask SaS to support the amendment of the Constitution of the Slovak Republic, which would allow the announcement of early elections. “First, we would like to negotiate with them to see if they will support changing the constitution,” Hlas-SD leader Peter Pellegrini told reporters. Smer wants to negotiate early elections The opposition party Smer-SD wants the parliament to first discuss a draft constitutional law that would enable the shortening of the electoral period. He will ask to be included as the first item of the regular session of the Parliament. This follows from the statement of the chairman of the party, Robert Fico, at the press conference on Tuesday. “On the basis of this amendment, we would be able to ensure that early elections could be achieved both through a referendum and a constitutional law. It is an insurmountable condition for us. Our interest in supporting this will depend on how the representatives of the ruins of the government coalition approach it. anything in the NR SR,” he stated. Photo gallery (13) Source: Topky – Ján Zemiar ĽSNS MPs will not support any coalition proposal, they want to block the meetings of the National Council of the SR for ĽSNS, they will not support any coalition proposal, at the same time they want to block the parliament for three months so that President Zuzana Čaputová has to dissolve the NR SR. MP Martin Beluský (ĽSNS) announced this at Tuesday’s press conference. At the same time, he called on other opposition parties to block the parliament. “All opposition parties must do everything to block every meeting of the NR SR, that is, not to present themselves at all,” said Beluský. They also called on other opposition parties not to submit motions for the dismissal of government members, as the three-month period would be interrupted. ĽSNS wants the election period of the NR SR to end as soon as possible. In addition to the referendum and the constitutional law on the shortening of the election period, Beluský spoke about the fact that if the session does not open for three months, the president can dissolve the parliament. “We will not support any proposals of the coalition, regardless of whether they are good or bad,” Beluský added. He emphasized that the government lost its legitimacy after the departure of SaS, and citizens should be given the opportunity to elect their representatives to the parliament anew. According to the Constitution of the Slovak Republic, the President can dissolve the parliament if the National Assembly of the Slovak Republic has not been capable of passing a resolution for more than three months, even though its session was not interrupted and even though it was repeatedly called for a meeting during that time.