BRATISLAVA, October 3, (WEBNOVINY) — Party leaders will discuss at the Coalition Council on Tuesday, October 4, an acceptable political solution to the dispute over the extension of the capacity of the original EFSF bailout fund and the date of the vote on the issue in parliament. The session will be held at the central office of the MOST-HID coalition party at 5 p.m. Chairman of MOST-HID Bela Bugar wants the vote on the bailout fund to take before October 16 and expects SaS MPs to present their opinion of the comprise proposal of Prime Minister Iveta Radicova (SDKU-DS). “The proposal has been delivered to SaS and we will expect the party to at least inform us whether its members are discussing it and what are the prospects for reaching an agreement,“ said Bugar for SITA news agency.
The Prime Minister informed that the vote on the bailout fund would be held between October 11-14, i.e. during the first week of the scheduled parliamentary session. Speaker of Parliament and SaS Chairman Richard Sulik has not presented a preliminary agenda of the parliamentary session yet. The European Union summit will start in Brussels on October 17.
The Liberal SaS party refuses to support the bailout fund extension in the current form. Radicova’s compromise proposal, whose content was not made public and a major part of the coalition was not informed about it, may break the deadlock. Radicova believes that there is a solution for Slovakia to meet its commitments towards the eurozone and still not lose a cent. If SaS turns down such solution as well, KDH and MOST-HID will contemplate consequences. “I fear that it will be impossible to keep the coalition together after that,” said Pavol Hrusovsky of KDH on October 2 on the STV public television. Bugar joined Hrusovsky on Monday saying that if “SaS will continue pursuing its current course; being together in government will be out of question.” Bugar views SaS’ stance as manifestation of party’s populism and effort to win voters’ support.
Agreement of a part of the coalition with the opposition party SMER-SD can also come forward. SMER-SD Chairman Robert Fico maintains he will let the coalition to pass the first test of its capability to rule. He promises to back the bailout fund if at least 76 coalition deputies vote for it, otherwise he will call for political consequences, for example reconstruction of the government or early elections. SaS does not view a potential vote of the three coalition parties with SMER-SD on the bailout fund to be the reason for leaving the coalition but KDH and MOST-HID would have a problem with that.
Coalition leaders will also discuss the draft budget for 2012, which the Cabinet has to submit to parliament by October 15. The first draft of the Finance Ministry was under pressure after the outlook for the development of Slovakia’s economy for this and next year was revised downward. Ministries demand sufficient sources from Finance Minister Ivan Miklos despite the pressure.
SITA