BRATISLAVA, October 12, (SITA) — SaS-nominated Cabinet ministers are not planning to give up their posts and consider the call by Prime Minister Iveta Radicova to do so absurd. “What sense does it make to leave a departing Cabinet?” Culture Minister Daniel Krajcer asked in his reaction.
SaS leader Richard Sulik highlighted that the prime minister was aware of SaS‘ determination not to back the EFSF in the given form. His party rejects responsibility for the fall of the government after it lost a parliamentary vote of confidence. He reiterated that the rescue mechanism could not be the cause the collapse because the coupled votes made the opposition SMER-SD refrain from voting. “In my opinion to couple the votes in such a situation was simply irresponsible,” he said without elaborating on the potential motives behind the merger of the two ballots. Sulik dismissed the question of whether SaS would support early elections as premature.
Krajcer stated that SaS was ready to discuss support for the 2012 draft state budget and reforms in the Cabinet and the parliament with „its coalition partners“. Labor Minister Jozef Mihal assumes that the payroll levy reform could still be passed in the parliament. “I carry on as if nothing had happened. I’m still in talks with sole-proprietors, artists; the levy reform can be approved at this session,” he stated. SaS members including leader Richard Sulik were unwilling to speculate about silent support for a minority Cabinet.
SaS on Tuesday did not support the enhanced EFSF in the parliament in spite of the threat of the Cabinet’s collapse. All members of the deputy caucus but Martin Fecko pulled out their MP ID cards from voting machines and refrained from the ballot. Fecko voted to back both the bailout fund and the Cabinet. As a result, the entire Cabinet if Iveta Radicova will be recalled.
SITA