Coalition parties are ready to negotiate as Prime Minister Eduard Heger invited their leaders to meet at the hotel Borik, the representative facility of the Slovak government. His intention is to resolve a month-long ongoing crisis. Despite the fact that OLaNO is sticking firmly to its demands, the liberals from Freedom and Solidarity promised to attend the meeting. Nevertheless, they were ready to restate the conditions of their ultimatum - if OLaNO leader Igor Matovic does not leave the government by the end of August, the liberal ministers will leave it.
The OLaNO presidium as well as its parliamentary caucus decided on Thursday that Igor Matovic will remain in the post of finance minister even after the expiration of the ultimatum set by the coalition Freedom and Solidarity party.
Liberals are calling for Matovic to leave due to their disapproval of his use of state money. Both of the parties are insisting on their demands while the Prime Minister tries to find a solution. The coalition experienced similar tension a year ago with Igor Matovic stepping down from his post of Prime Minister at the very last moment. This year, he is not willing to step down from the position of Finance Minister. The OLaNO presidium supports it leader as its member Michal Sipos confirms:
"This decision is immutable. Igor Matovic won the election. He was given a mandate to form a coalition for this election term.”
Liberals are insisting on their demand. According to the Freedom and Solidarity party, Matovic cannot manage the Finance Ministry properly and is ruining public finances. Leader of the party Richard Sulik:
“The biggest problem of this government must leave. When he’s gone, we will be happy to continue working. Our aim is not early elections, not the fall of Eduard Heger’s government but we will not be forever walking on tiptoes around Igor Matovic.”
Prime Minister Eduard Heger has stated several times that his priority is the coalition of four parties with the term ending in 2024. If no compromise is achieved, a minority government will be established as of September. According to political scientists, OLaNO will try to form a minority government. Michal Cirner from Presov University says that was once the case of the Mikulas Dzurinda government.
“Which was a minority government for over two years using the support of independent MPs who left the opposition party led by Vladimir Meciar. This scenario is possible but it will depend on the MPs who claim today that they will not be ruling with support of the fascist parties in the parliament.”
Radoslav Stefancik from the University of Economics in Bratislava sees the problem of the minority government in the conflictual nature of the OLaNO leader.
“As if Igor Matovic was living from conflicts. When Richard Sulik is no longer opposing him, he will find another target. He was doing this before he became a member of the government, he was doing it also at the time when he was a member of the coalition led by Iveta Radicova.”
In the event of a minority government, the coalition would have to rely on the support of far right MPs. Political scientists find this point to be crucial and leading to value-based conflicts between liberal and conservative parties.
Source: RTVS, TASR
