BRATISLAVA, September 17, (SITA)- Some MPs for the ruling party SaS are changing their minds regarding the European bailout fund and are aware of their political responsibility, believes the head of the KDH deputy club Pavol Hrusovsky. He however added that if the parliament fails to voice support to the bailout fund owing to the SaS it would be very difficult for his party to remain with the ruling coalition that is not able to strike accord in such important issues. Hrusovsky discussed the issue with SMER-SD leader Robert Fico in the Saturday Dialogues program on Slovak Radio. Hrusovsky however thinks that not all possibilities were exhausted during so far political talks in order to find a solution also to this coalition crisis.
Hrusovsky believes that it would be a right step to merge the bailout fund vote with the confidence vote in the Cabinet. He said that they would not be pressing on the prime minister to do so but he considers it so serious that if he was in the place of the prime minister he would strongly recommend to adopt such decision. The KDH is currently not considering another alternative but wants to continue as a member of this ruling coalition “We want to continue in this government but we want all coalition parties to pull themselves together,” he said.
The chairman of the strongest opposition party SMER-SD and Deputy Speaker of Parliament Robert Fico insists that unless the coalition finds an agreement regarding the European rescue mechanism SMER will not support it. If the bailout fund is not passed at the first attempt and the vote on it will be merged with the confidence vote in this cabinet SMER will definitively abstain from such vote. “It is their problem,” stated Fico adding that his party will start to act if it turns out that the ruling coalition is not able to adopt serious decisions for the sake of Slovakia. “Then we will say, yes it is appearing that you are not able to rule, let’s hold early parliamentary elections and we will resolve everything,” the ex-PM said.
SITA