BRATISLAVA, October 14, (WEBNOVINY) — President Ivan Gasparovic decided to dismiss the whole Cabinet after it lost the parliamentary vote of confidence earlier this week. After a meeting with Prime Minister Iveta Radicova, he said he will convene a meeting with leaders of parliamentary parties to agree upon next steps. He did not rule out the possibility of appointing a caretaker government of experts. The president further said that had the prime minister resigned, he would have asked her to continue to head the Cabinet with all its present members until a new one was appointed based on election results. Since this did not happen, the president is expected dissolve the Cabinet and authorize someone to form a new government, new Cabinet members will have to be appointed. He stressed that Radicova told him that the Cabinet members decided that she would not hand in her resignation, but that the entire Cabinet would fall. As a result, the president decided to convene a meeting with all leaders of parliamentary parties for Monday, October 17, to agree upon next steps. “Whether someone will be able to form a government that should naturally have majority support in parliament, or whether they will agree on a minority government. Otherwise, the next potential step is for me to appoint a caretaker government myself,” President Gasparovic added. The head of state thanked the outgoing prime minister for “everything successful and beneficial she has done for Slovakia,” and added that they would surely meet again one day.
The president added that “for this situation it would have been better had the prime minister resigned and continued to lead the Cabinet, naturally without those ministers whom she herself objected to, until a new Cabinet was appointed.”
Gasparovic told the media that he discussed the situation with opposition leader Robert Fico (SMER-SD) earlier in the morning, while representatives of the ruling coalition member KDH want to meet with the president later on Friday.
Early elections in Slovakia will take place on March 10, 2012. Shortening the parliament’s term after sixteen months in office was the political price the center-right governing coalition had to pay to win opposition SMER-SD support for ratification of the extended eurozone bailout fund.
SITA