BRATISLAVA, December 8, (WEBNOVINY) — Chairman of the Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party Richard Sulik is outraged by parliament’s decision to again postpone a vote to abolish deputy immunity for minor offenses. “I have to say that I would have never expected anything like that in my worst dreams,” Sulik commended on Thursday’s vote based on which talks on all deputy draft bills listed on the agenda of the 26th parliamentary session were postponed until the next session. Sulik emphasized that on October 20, chairmen of the former ruling coalition parties, Mikulas Dzurinda (SDKU-DS), Jan Figel (KDH) and Bela Bugar (MOST-HID), pledged in writing to support a parliamentary vote to abolish deputy immunity for minor offenses immediately after parliament approves the state budget bill for 2012.
Deputies of SMER-SD, SDKU-DS, MOST-HID, SNS and some KDH MPs supported deferral of talks on these repeatedly postponed deputy draft bills on Thursday. Sulik is disappointed over the violated agreement and is considering drawing due consequences. “We may have to change the set-up of our next agreements so that they will have to meet them first because these gentlemen have probably forgotten long ago that everyone has only one reputation. Their signatures are not even worth this paper they have been placed on,” said Sulik about his former coalition partners. He cannot imagine how they plan to promise anyone anything in the future.
Sulik claims that circumscribing the program is in conflict with constitutional rights of MPs’ because proposals in the first reading may no longer be up for approval. MOST-HID MP Ondrej Dostal suggested the Parliamentary Constitutional and Legal Affairs Committee to deal with the issue but the plenum did not hold the vote on the issue in the end. “I find this a severe violation of parliamentary rules,” said the SaS leader and added that his party may consider bringing the case to the Constitutional Court. The party does not want to make a rash decision and will carefully think it through. “Mr. Hrusovsky returned the situation in parliament to what we had before 1989,” he summed up the action of the Speaker of Parliament.
Gabor Gal (MOST-HID) opines that SaS was the first one to violate an agreement, referring to the fact that SaS could not secure support of 21 MPs who were members of the SaS caucus at the time the agreement was signed. Sulik opposes saying that the departure of Ordinary People was a common knowledge a year ago. Gal says that omitting from the current session legislative proposals of parliamentary deputies was good, as it will prevent political parties misuse parliament for their political campaigns. Abolishment of deputy immunity was dropped from the agenda because it was in the package of other deputies’ proposals.
SITA