There's still no solution to the issue of the selection of the new House chair, as this agenda is not ready yet to be attended to by Parliament, Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) declared after his meeting with President Peter Pellegrini on Tuesday.
According to Fico, coalition members Hlas-SD and SNS must resolve the issue. He added that he has been helping to midwife an agreement between them because the post in question must be stabilised, seeing as it's the second most senior constitutional position in the state.
"I won't argue now about where we are at and in what situation. The fact remains that this agenda is not ready enough to be forwarded automatically to a session of the Parliament," Fico declared at the Presidential Palace.
The top House post has been vacant since Pellegrini won the 2024 presidential election. According to the coalition agreement, it belongs to Hlas-SD, which plans to install Investment Minister Richard Rasi in it. This does not sit well with SNS, however, as SNS chair Andrej Danko would find it ideal if each of the three coalition parties held one of the top three constitutional posts. Fico has in the past suggested the same.
Prime Minister Fico welcomes the agreement on the signing of the joint declaration of the top three constitutional officials on Slovakia's foreign political orientation, slated for September 1. "As the Prime Minister, I will always promote the concept of a sovereign Slovak foreign policy, but without any endangering of our memberships in the international organisations of consequence, which, for Slovakia, are the EU and NATO," he stated.
In the near future, the government will also deal with the consolidation of public finances, with several variants on the table. Fico added that he will fully respect the legitimate use of a veto by the President. "I trust it will be used based on factual and expertise-informed arguments," he said. Fico added that Pellegrini will not be "attacked" for his potential use of the veto, as this is the President's fundamental constitutional right.
Pellegrini and Fico also discussed the coordination of foreign political activities. The Prime Minister informed the head of state of his upcoming foreign visits this year, for instance, to South Korea, aimed at finding investors to complete the building of Jaslovske Bohunice nuclear power plant's new block, and the joint session of the Slovak and Ukrainian Governments, slated in Ukraine's Mukachevo on October 7. Fico also plans to visit China in late October/early November and Latin America in December.
Source: TASR
