BRATISLAVA, February 11, (WEBNOVINY) – Prime Minister Iveta Radicova should not associate voting on the amendment to the law on state citizenship with a confidence vote in the government, according to leader of the MOST-HID party Bela Bugar. “It is very strong. It is not appropriate to threaten with the fall of the government. At the same time, everyone has to realize that if the government program statement is not fulfilled, it will not be necessary to merge voting on laws and voting on confidence. No bills will be passed then,” Bugar told z news conference on Friday. He believes that the coalition will go on. But only if all realize what promise they made when they approved the government program statement.
Bugar rejects allegations that he was extorting the coalition in the issue of the amendment to the citizenship act. “I will always very gladly blackmail with the government program statement. If respecting agreements is blackmail, I have to say that deputies of the ruling coalition have no idea what responsibility is. It is not responsible to once vote for the government program statement and the next time say they think differently,” he said.
Bugar went on to say that the coalition was born with great difficulties, but despite this it adopted a good program and it should be fulfilled in order to prove it is good. He underscored that it is a matter of principle, and not extortion.
According to Bugar, SaS leader Richard Sulik informed coalition leaders that Igor Matovic and his Ordinary People (a platform within the SaS caucus) would support their own amendment to the citizenship act, but would not support the opposition’s draft. He added that MOST-HID did not demand Matovic’s expulsion from the SaS caucus. “We asked the SaS and KDH parties to take action. It does not concern this law, but the government program statement. We should have taken action already when some deputies voted against the introduction of excise tax on beer. We are slowly learning that all is written, but it is not valid,” he said, concluding that the coalition can not complete its election term in such way.
Chairman of the MOST-HID party announced on Thursday his party deputies would not support coalition drafts until the stalemate in the coalition was resolved. The crisis burst out after leader of Ordinary People Igor Matovic and KDH deputy Radoslav Prochazka supported the opposition’s draft revisions to the state citizenship act.
SITA