Coalition alive and well, says Smer leader

Smer-SD chair Robert Fico sees absolutely no reason for an early election, saying that the responsible thing is for the coalition to continue. "We have a functioning coalition. All it took was to hold a single constructive session of the coalition council and things are moving forward already," he stated at a press conference on Tuesday. The coalition appeared to be in jeopardy earlier this week after two weeks of wrangling over the nature of negotiations concerning a proposed defence co-operation agreement with the United States, including a possible $105 million in financial assistance for the upgrade of Slovak military air bases. In his statement, Fico said that the coalition managed to arrive at a sensible conclusion. "We identified certain insurmountable red lines with respect to the deal with the USA," he said, adding: "Signing any agreement that would violate the sovereignty of Slovakia is out of the question."