BRATISLAVA, September 27, (WEBNOVINY) — Connecting the votes on the extended eurozone bailout fund with a confidence vote in the government would be premature, according to Prime Minister Iveta Radicova. “It is premature to think this way. It is premature to opt for this extreme tool that might lead to political destabilization, but most importantly, that would completely disable the completion of started-up changes for us,” Radicova was quoted as saying before the meeting of the SDKU-DS leadership on Tuesday. She added that connecting support for the bailout fund with a vote of confidence in the government is always an option. This is how she formulated it at the last Coalition Council meeting, she added. Radicova called to mind the words of Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, according to whom the vote on the bailout fund is a vote on an issue, which she sees no reason to connect with confidence in the government.
Furthermore, the prime minister is offering coalition partners a solution that with regard to our commitments to the eurozone, we do not block other countries, but also do not spend a single cent from our guarantees in the wrong direction. She emphasized that the government has a commitment to the Slovak people to find ways to increase employment, decrease unemployment, resolve problems in the health care system and the education system. “We have a commitment to complete reforms, to adopt the state budget. I cannot imagine a worse situation for the Slovak Republic than political instability. What’s more, we have commitments as a member of the eurozone and the EU. I am fully aware of these, as the Slovak economy is fully open and we have a duty to build dams and barriers to avoid being hit by recession. It is in our own interest,” she stressed.
For the prime minister, the extended eurozone bailout fund is one of the priority issues. She emphasized that the government inherited the temporary bailout fund from the government of Robert Fico with three conditions that are still in effect. “We are playing an open, truthful game. I clearly stated at the last summit that Slovakia has a problem in parliament with this form of the bailout fund, without the conditions that we formulated.” She restated that it is not up to one or three politicians, but the citizens to decide about creation of the fiscal union that the EU started talking about.
On Tuesday, the SDKU-DS leadership is meeting to discuss the stalemate in the governing coalition concerning lack of support for the eurozone stabilization mechanisms. SDKU-DS Deputy Chairman and Finance Minister Ivan Miklos announced last week that he supports connecting the vote on the bailout programs with a confidence vote in the government. The reason behind this is opposition of the SaS party on the bailout issues.
SITA