BRATISLAVA, September 19, (WEBNOVINY) — Finance Minister Ivan Miklos thinks that the vote on the proposed increase in the lending capacity of the European Financial Stability Facility in the Slovak Parliament should be connected with a confidence vote in the government. “I am convinced that the [bailout] vote should be connected with a confidence vote,” the deputy prime minister said at a conference dedicated to the future of the eurozone, held on Monday in Bratislava.
The Finance Minister stated that the position of the liberal party SaS in certain way expresses distrust in Prime Minister Iveta Radicova, who backed the expansion of the EFSF’s powers at the meeting of euro club leaders. He called it populism because it prefers a position agreeable to voters regardless of its consequences, which could be very negative for Slovakia. Ireland and Portugal prove that the bailout mechanism can work.
Miklos noted that Slovakia should decide on the fate of the EFSF by October 11. If the country rejects its extension, it would get itself into great trouble. In addition to toying with a potential spilt of the eurozone, the rejection of changes suggested for the rescue mechanism would indirectly harm Slovakia’s credibility to a great extent.
SaS leader Richard Sulik maintains that the proposed widening of power of EFSF is a problem for his party. At the conference on Monday, he said that the EFSF was a tool to create a transfer union, which would harm Slovakia.
SITA