Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová wants to meet Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger to debate how the proper functioning of constitutional bodies will be ensured in the light of the current coalition crisis. She has not specified the date of the meeting. It is impossible to go on like this. A restart is needed. I hope it will be beneficial for this country," stated the President.
The dispute within the coalition has intensified again after Parliament passed the so called pro-family package, in a fast-track procedure sponsored by the Finance Minister and leader of the largest governing Ordinary People Party Igor Matovič. The bill costing €1.3 billion, whose financial coverage is not clear, was passed without the support of co-governing Freedom and Solidarity, in cooperation with the opposition MPs of the far-right People’s Party our Slovakia. The President vetoed some parts of the package, however, the parliament overrode the veto. After that, without discussion with coalition partners Matovič introduced another package – a one-off bonus for state workers.
Subsequently, Freedom and Solidarity withdrew from the coalition agreement. It expects a new one by the end of August and wants to rework it based on the current political situation. It also demands Matovič’s resignation. However, the Ordinary People’s party stands behind Matovič, refusing his departure from the Government. Freedom and Solidarity wants to present its demands to the PM this week. If they are not met, its ministers will tender their resignations. The party chair Sulík said that the government would not be brought down if they left their ministerial posts and that their party would support reasonable government law proposals. "The government will continue to function normally, maybe it will be a minority, maybe it will have a majority," added Sulík.
However, Boris Kollár, Speaker of Parliament and chair of another coalition We Are Family party said that he is not in favour of changing the coalition agreement.
