Parliamentary session interrupted for week

Parliamentary Vice-chairman Gabor Grendel (OLANO) on Thursday interrupted the parliamentary session for a week on the initiative of all four governing-coalition caucuses after it emerged that there were not enough MPs to back an amendment to a constitutional law on the state's security. The bill would allow the Government to extend repeatedly the state of emergency due to non-violent causes by a maximum of 40 days, although this would have to be approved by Parliament no more than 20 days after the extension took effect.
At the moment, a state of emergency due to non-violent causes can be imposed for 90 days at most, while there is no provision on extending it. Prime Minister Igor Matovic (OLANO) has pondered that, technically, when a state of emergency expires after 90 days, a one-minute hiatus could follow before the imposition of another state of emergency. Meanwhile, some lawyers have criticised the Government even for extending the 45-day state of emergency by another 45 days as of mid-November, claiming that this went against the spirit of the constitutional law now in force.