As of Friday, the new Parliament started its term with its inaugural session. The MPs elected in the general election on February 29 have now embarked on Parliament's eighth election term. In the course of the session they were due to take their oaths, a requirement for taking up their mandates. The meeting was being held under strict security and preventive measures, due to the spread of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 disease.
Later in the session, MPs were to elect a new parliamentary chair. We Are Family leader Boris Kollar has become the new parliamentary head. The meeting was to becontinued with the election of the parliamentary vice-chairs. For the People proposed Juraj Seliga and OLaNO Gabor Grendel. Freedom and Solidarity Chairman Richard Sulik said he would like to propose Milan Laurencik as parliamentary vice-chair for the Liberals. Smer-SD is expected to suggest that Peter Pellegrini, who is still prime minister, sit in Parliament as an MP only after submitting his resignation.
Another vote concerned the chairs of the 19 parliamentary committees. The four-strong coalition composed of OLaNO, We Are Family, Freedom and Solidarity and For the People will take 12 seats, while opposition parties Smer-SD and the far-right LSNS will have a total of seven chairpersons. With no face mask in his speech at the inauguration session, Smer-SD chairman and former three-time Prime Minister Robert Fico criticised the coalition parties for their lack of support for controversial MP Lubos Blaha as Smer-SD's candidate for the post of head of the parliamentary human rights committee. Blaha stated that if the new governing coalition won't support his nomination, it will be a 'totalitarian roll'. In his Friday speech, Fico warned that if Blaha is not supported by the coalition, Smer-SD would not vote for Boris Kollar as the new parliamentary head.
MPs also formed caucuses at the founding session. The strongest, with 53 members, will be the one belonging to OLaNO, the second largest caucus is that of opposition party Smer-SD (38 MPs), followed by We Are Family (17), LSNS (17), Freedom and Solidarity (13) and For the People (12).
Peter Pellegrini's outgoing government will resign later on Friday. President Zuzana Caputova will appoint a new cabinet headed by Igor Matovic (OLaNO) on Saturday, March 21.
