BRATISLAVA, September 21, (WEBNOVINY) — Following the Cabinet session on Wednesday, coalition leaders spoke with journalists about the euro zone bailout fund supported by three coalition parties and strictly opposed by the liberal member of the coalition, the SaS party. As SaS Deputy Chairman Jozef Mihal told a news conference the coalition unified a year ago as twigs of Svatopluk, the ruler of Great Moravia, while the difference is only that there were three of them while the coalition is formed by four members. The SaS does not wish a split of the coalition and neither does it want early elections.
KDH Chairman Jan Figel says that Slovakia still has time to agree on a stance to the bailout fund. He said that the agreement is still valid that Slovakia will hold a vote on the euro-zone bailout find among the last euro zone countries. “We will argue and appeal on responsibility and seek joint solutions,” said Figel adding that such solution does exist. The adopted solution should enable each coalition partner to be true to its political values and it also must be about responsibility for Slovakia. “Much is at stake, not only the coalition’s fate,” he stated. According to him the opposition, SMER-SD party can support the European rescue mechanism if it really pursues national and state interests.
Serious and discreet negotiations are ahead for the ruling coalition, said Figel who reiterated that if partners show good will they will find a solution. According to him an agreement should be concluded under which the bailout fund will be established but its effective use will be in the hands of all euro zone countries, including Slovakia.
SDKU Deputy Chairman and Finance Minister Ivan Miklos says that the bailout fund is a serious issue that splits the coalition. He reminded that he set the date for parliament’s approval of the rescue mechanism for October 11, which will be within three weeks. “We will still negotiate,” he stated. Miklos informed that SDKU-DS senior officials will discuss merging the bailout fund vote with a confidence vote in Cabinet with Prime Minister Iveta Radicova after she returns from the United States. He explained that he informed about what was talked about at the Coalition Council on Tuesday only in reaction to a news conference of the SaS where it was said that coalition partners are plotting against the prime minister.
Miklos stirred the political scene on Tuesday by telling journalists that Prime Minister Radicova has allegedly informed her coalition partners that the vote on the extension of the EFSF will be merged with a confidence vote in the government. This decision is supposed to have come after the SaS rejected a compromise solution at the last week’s Coalition Council. Miklos added that the prime minister presented the position of the entire party, agreed upon by its representatives. The head of the parliamentary caucus of the SaS, Jozef Kollar however rushed to condemn Miklos’s statements. He said he rejects individual interpretations of the conclusions of the Coalition Council by its participants. Prime Minister Iveta Radicova has left on Monday for a week-long visit to the United States.
SITA