Only one of the four proposals included in the court map reform, specifically the one concerning the new headquarters of district courts, have been advanced to the second reading in Parliament, while the remaining three failed to find sufficient support among MPs. The only proposal to make it through envisages scrapping the district courts in Partizanske, Banovce nad Bebravou, Skalica and Kezmarok. Coalition partner 'We Are Family' gave a thumbs-down to the majority of court map reform bills.
The 'We Are Family' party is about as useful to the rest of the coalition as a "tumor in the throat", SaS chair and Economy Minister Richard Sulik declared after the parliamentary vote on the court map reform on Thursday. Sulik spoke in response to the fact that the 'We Are Family' gave a thumbs-down to the majority of the court map reform bills. The vote also revealed the "simple-mindedness" of 'For the People' chair Veronika Remisova, added Sulik.
In Sulik's view, 'We Are Family' chair Boris Kollar voiced only "oddball" reasons for his lack of support and his arguments were "pretty much nil". He added that his party would not leave the coalition over the vote, however. Sulik pointed out that the court map reform was an item included in the Government Manifesto, but the coalition partners have largely ignored that fact.
There is still hope yet for the court map reform itself as well as parts of it that have not made it to the second reading in the House, Justice Minister Maria Kolikova declared after the vote on Thursday. She pledged that she would do everything in her power to turn the situation around, as parts of the reform rejected by Parliament also contained binding parameters of the Recovery Plan. Kolikova wants to get her coalition partners "back on board" to complete the reform. She hinted at the possibility of having the court map approved via an amending proposal, seeing as one of the four motions making up the reform was passed by the House on Thursday. Kolikova fails to understand the stance of 'For the People' party, who she claimed had never informed her of their reservations regarding the creation of Bratislava and Kosice city courts. The minister declared that she felt strong support from the Freedom and Solidarity and Ordinary People (OLaNO) parties.
The failure to approve the majority of bills related to the court map reforms in Parliament is very bad news for Slovakia, as it puts the drawing of resources within the recovery plan in jeopardy, Prime Minister Eduard Heger declared in a social network post on Friday. He sees the greatest failing in being unable to meet the goal of having more transparent and professional courts, and he pledged to seek crisis measures to remedy the situation.
According to Heger, Slovakia is now moving away from the vision of restoring trust in its judiciary. The coalition must also be aware that it is now nearing the end of the first half of its term, and the time window for drafting and implementing reforms is closing with each passing day.
Source: TASR
