BRATISLAVA, October 11, (WEBNOVINY) — The vote on changes to the European bailout fund for the most indebted European countries is the first point on the agenda of the parliamentary session opening in Bratislava on Tuesday, 1 p.m. The Cabinet approved the proposal of Prime Minister Iveta Radicova to connect the bailout vote with a vote of confidence in her Cabinet. She is supposed to have opted for this alternative after the coalition partners failed to persuade the SaS party of Richard Sulik at the Coalition Council’s meeting on Monday to support changes to the bailout mechanism. The prime minister said after the Coalition Council’s meeting that the deepening crisis needs an urgent solution. “Slovakia will hardly manage to face problems alone. There is a slim chance that we will cope with this period without supranational programs,” she stated. The prime minister said she would decide according to three criteria: the solution of the crisis, prevention of its impacts and Slovakia’s trustworthiness.
The opposition SMER-SD that says it supports the enhanced bailout fund has already announced that it would register for the vote but they will abstain. SaS leader Richard Sulik announced earlier on Tuesday that their deputies will not attend the parliamentary vote on changes to the European bailout fund. He argued that they do not agree with the prime minister’s intention to connect the issue that is at odds with the government program statement with a vote of confidence in the Cabinet. Four MPs from the Ordinary People movement have announced that they will not attend the bailout vote either. It means that the plenum will be quorate but without SaS and Ordinary People votes, the enhanced bailout fund will not win the necessary support and the Cabinet will lose the confidence vote. The ruling coalition needs at least 76 votes to pass the bailout fund and win the confidence vote.
After Malta voted to ratify the enhanced European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) on Monday, Slovakia is the last member of the 17-member eurozone to vote on changes to the rescue mechanism, the ratification of which needs go-ahead from all members of the euro-club. This is why Slovakia is in the spotlight of not only of local but also foreign media on Tuesday when among others Japanese television TV NHK, German ARD and ZDF, US Associated Press, British BBC or reporters from New York Times, Washington Post and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung accredited to watch the voting.
The agenda of the October session of parliament also includes the second reading of the tax-levy reform that is to increase tax revenue and payroll levies paid by self-proprietors and contract agents. MPs for the ruling coalition have not still struck accord over the reform, which is opposed mainly by the quartet of OKS MPs working in the MOST-HID deputy club. In his draft amendment to the Act on Radio and Television of Slovakia (RTVS) that is on the agenda as well, Culture Minister Daniel Krajcer (SaS) wants to scrap concessionaire fees; however some coalition MPs slam him for proposing a pay hike to RTVS director general from four-fold of the average wage to sevenfold.
One of the controversial bills on the agenda of the upcoming parliamentary session is an amendment to the State Citizenship Act. It offers a solution to the situation when a citizen of Slovakia automatically loses his/her Slovak citizenship after being granted another country’s citizenship based on his free will. The ruling coalition inherited this law from the Robert Fico government. The draft with the ambition to correct the law from the previous era limits the loss of Slovak citizenship through becoming a citizen of another country to cases when the other state’s citizenship was acquired by an applicant without any registered form of residence in the respective country. The MOST-HID however does not like the bill saying it is not a solution to the situation but only a facelift while Slovak citizens will continue losing their citizenship against their will if they gain citizenship of another country.
SITA