BRATISLAVA, June 30, (WEBNOVINY) — The ruling coalition member, the KDH party, thinks that by not voting for the amendment to the Construction Act ensuing from the government’s program statement, MPs for the Liberal SaS party have flagrantly breached the coalition agreement. According to the head of the KDH deputy club Pavol Hrusovsky, they refused to fulfill a basic program priority of the ruling coalition in an unprecedented way without having informed their partners in advance that they are to not support this draft, which the KDH considers a harsh violation of the coalition agreement. KDH Chairman Jan Figel thus wants the Coalition Council to instantly meet over the issue.
Hrusovsky said that his party wants to have it clear whether the SaS is serious about being a member of the ruling coalition and whether it wants to fulfill the program statement of the current government. “This is on what the unity of the ruling coalition depends,” he said. Therefore steps should follow that would persuade the Christian-Democrats whether the coalition is able to continue governing. Nobody from the party however said what steps they will request from the SaS. Hrusovsky only said that they will be more concrete at the Coalition Council. He hinted that they ran out of patience with SaS attitudes and they will not tolerate everything. “If the SaS party thinks it will continue in this way and provoke the unity of the ruling coalition, then it is fundamentally mistaken,’ he said
Figel said that the voting of seven SaS deputies who failed to support the revision evokes serious questions marks about their motives. The amendment toughens sanctions for illegally built buildings, while the SaS‘ attitude suits those who abuse the current legal status and support developers and ignoramuses who misuse the common heritage, said Figel.
Voting of seven ruling coalition MPs from the SaS party, who did not support in the first reading the Cabinet’s draft amendment to the construction law in parliament on Thursday was nothing but a mistake, said SaS parliamentary caucus chairman Jozef Kollar. “I’m convinced that it was just an ordinary error. If I wasn’t convinced, I wouldn’t have shown them all to support it. We are ready to apologize to our coalition partners for this error,” Kollar said.
MOST-HID Chairman Bela Bugar does not believe this vote was an error and accuses SaS of purely political motives. According to him, the reasons are disagreements between liberal SaS and Christian-Democratic KDH. “SaS MPs did this on purpose. They wanted to show how, from their point of view, it would look like if KDH voted with SNS or SMER,” said Bugar. He also thinks that the way SaS MPs voted was a revenge for the vote on prohibiting labor in stores during all state holidays. “From my point of view, the situation is serious, as at least two coalition parties are fighting each other in this way,” explains Bugar, adding that this could mean further laws will not be adopted. He would rather prefer negotiating instead of voting at the moment, as the rules of procedure only allow voting on the same issue after six months from an unsuccessful attempt.
Independent MP Igor Matovic from the group Ordinary People went even further and claimed he would support early election if the relations between SaS and KDH do not improve. According to Kollar, even more experienced MPs do make mistakes.
SITA