On Thursday evening, Foreign and European Affairs Minister Miroslav Lajčák, a SMER-SD nominee, resigned from his post. He came to this decision after Parliament rebuked the UN Global Pact on Migration. Lajčák had been President of the United Nations General Assembly until September 2018 when the pact was adopted at the UN level.
According to the Pravda daily, before the resignation, Andrej Danko, Speaker of Parliament, chair of the junior governing Slovak National Party (SNS) and strong opponent of the migration pact called Lajčák's statements regarding the pact "stupidities". Moreover, he asked Robert Fico, chair of the largest governing SMER-SD party, which nominated Lajčák, for a correction in Lajčák's statements. The Slovak National Party insisted on banning Slovak representatives from attending the Marrakech conference in December, where the UN Global Pact on Migration should be discussed. According to Lajčák, such a step would prevent Slovak diplomacy from doing its job. "If you are not at the table, you end up on the menu," said Lajčák earlier this week in reaction to the proposed ban.
