Deadlock at Constitutional Court

Deadlock at Constitutional Court

MPs have elected no candidates for the posts of Constitutional Court judges even in the second round. This means that the Constitutional Court will not be able to operate as of Saturday, 16th February.

The vote was public with the largest coalition party SMER-SD MPs casting empty ballots in protest. Slovak President Andrej Kiska called the vote result a great blow to public confidence in the ability of politicians to govern the state fairly. "The duty of the Parliament - hence, the duty of the governing parliamentary majority - was to elect 18 candidates, out of whom I, as President, was supposed to pick nine judges. The Parliament and hence the parliamentary majority failed to meet this duty," he said. Kiska pointed out that it had been public knowledge for 12 years that the majority of Constitutional Court judges would see their tenures expire at the same time. "Despite this, the parliamentary majority failed and dismantled the cardinal constitutional body of the Slovak Republic in the process," he stated, adding that this is happening due to putting personal interests and ego above state interests.

Slovak Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini gave his official statement to the situation no sooner than Friday morning. He expressed his dissatisfaction with the way SMER-SD MPs acted in the public vote. "Our own caucus has contributed to the deadlock of the Constitutional Court," he said adding that he could not agree with this approach neither as citizen nor as Prime Minister. "I will always be very critical about this," he said.

The Parliamentary Speaker Andrej Danko also gave his official stance on the failed vote of the Constitutional Court judges on Friday. In his response to the situation, Danko suggested the new vote on the Constitutional Court judges should be secret as no candidate was elected in the public one. According to him, the incumbent President Andrej Kiska should not appoint the new judges in a similar way to the former President Ivan Gašparovič in 2014. Media point out that back then the Constitutional Court was not missing a majority of judges.

The largest coalition Smer-SD MP Miroslav Číž responded to the failed parliamentary vote on the Constitutional Court judges on Thursday with the view that the election of Constitutional Court judge candidates is complex and not even the pope is elected on the first try. Číž claimed that there were pre-vote talks inside the coalition on electing six candidates to prevent gridlock in the court. Číž did not, however, confirm the existence of the agreement. "It was rather one of the alternatives," he said. Seeing as no sensible conclusion was reached on how to vote, Smer-SD lawmakers were given a free rein, maintains Číž. Voting at will, many Smer-SD MPs chose to cast empty ballots.

The Constitutional Court will be deadlocked for two months as it will lack a quorum in the wake of a bad decision by governing Smer, junior coalition Most-Hid party chair Bela Bugar said in response to the failed parliamentary vote on Thursday. Despite Smer-SD's filibuster, Bugar is not hinting at the end of the coalition nor the prospect of a minority government. According to Bugar, both junior coalition parties, Most-Hid and Slovak National Party (SNS), voted in line with their deal to elect six candidates to prevent gridlock in the court. The problem lay with Smer-SD, as Smer-SD chairman Robert Fico was not present at the coalition talks, where the parties tried to hammer out an agreement, said Bugar.

Bela Bugar and his junior coalition Most-Hid party was the greatest disappointment for the liberals in the senior opposition party Freedom and Solidarity. "He might have struck a deal with the opposition in the name of protecting Slovak constitutionality, but he instead opted for a path that might absolutely divorce Slovakia from the rule of law," reads the text of the party's statement. In their response to the result of the public vote, they warn that "without the Constitutional Court, no one has the option, for instance, of looking into the constitutionality of the special levy for retail and other nonsense that (Slovak National Party leader Andrej) Danko and co. have forced into the Slovak statute book in order to help themselves and their clients".

In a few days, Slovakia's Constitutional Court will be dysfunctional and people will not have their constitutional rights guaranteed anymore, theopposition Ordinary People (OLaNO) party caucus chair Veronika Remišová said in response to Parliament's failure to elect any Constitutional Court judge candidates on Thursday. OLaNO calls upon the Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini (Smer-SD) to put his house in order and ensure the smooth operation of the Constitutional Court.

It is quite irresponsible towards the country to put the Constitutional Court into a deadlock, particularly when the date of the expiry of the tenures of nine Constitutional Court judges has been known for years, TASR was told by political analyst Pavol Baboš on Thursday. "The way they organised the vote at the last moment and how they postponed it does not constitute a responsible approach. The Constitutional Court plays an extremely important role and it won't be able to function properly for a few months until a new vote is held," claimed Baboš.


Lawyer Peter Wilfling of the civil legal organisation Via Iuris believes that rendering the Constitutional Court inoperative is irresponsible political strategising that favours partisan interests over the interests of Slovakia. He pointed out that the court will have only four judges out of thirteen and it will not be able to make the most important decisions, for example, on annulling unconstitutional laws, the validity of elections and the interpretation of the Constitution. One senate will remain at the Constitutional Court, consisting of three judges who will be able to take decisions on the complaints of the public regarding the infringement of rights, however, according to Via Iuris, due to capacity reasons it will not be able to process all of them.


Martina Šimkovičová, Photo: TASR

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