Three lawmakers centered around the head of non-parliamentary National Coalition Rudolf Huliak are leaving the Slovak National Party (SNS) caucus.
Huliak announced this on Tuesday in Parliament and added that despite this move, the trio will continue to comply with the Government Manifesto and support the Cabinet of Robert Fico (Smer-SD).
The lawmaker explained that ever since he and his colleagues Ivan Sevcik and Pavol Luptak came up with a request to rename the SNS caucus so as to make their non-parliamentary National Coalition more visible, they've been ignored and "completely cut off" from any decision-making within the caucus.
"Our access to information has been absolutely blocked, we've been totally ignored, prevented from attending the coalition council, which has held two sessions already," stated Huliak and added that the three legislators have been denied any option to get involved in the talks on the state budget or present their demands.
Smer-SD MP Dusan Munko is leaving the Smer parliamentary caucus to join the Slovak National Party (SNS) caucus in order for it to have the minimum number of MPs necessary to be preserved. The change was announced on Wednesday by Smer caucus head Jan Richter, who stressed that Munko's reasons were purely formal and legal, and that he remains a member of the Smer-SD party.
According to Richter, Munko joined the SNS caucus back on Tuesday, and the move was discussed within the coalition beforehand. He stressed that the existence of the three caucuses of the three coalition parties is vital from the point of view of parliamentary procedures.
Following their departure from the SNS caucus, the trio will continue to hold on to their MP mandates as Independents. "But we'd like to declare that we fully support the Government of Robert Fico, will vote in accordance with the coalition agreement, comply with the Government Manifesto and extend maximum cooperation regarding the coalition agreement, including the acceptance of a nominee by Hlas-SD for the post of House chair. It's about time to have someone elected," added Huliak.
Chairmen of two other coalition parties, Robert Fico (Smer-SD) and Matus Sutaj Estok (Hlas-SD), should find a solution to maintain a dialogue with representatives of the National Coalition, which is the only way to preserve the support for the Government and the continuity during voting in Parliament [the coalition commands only a narrow parliamentary majority of 79 votes out of 150 -ed.note]. Huliak also intends to submit items from his programme in Parliament in the form of MP proposals.
Source: TASR
