Adopting the budget for 2023 will be very difficult and it cannot be ruled out that no budget will be approved in the end, Slovak Finance Minister Igor Matovič said. In spite of this fact, Matovič does not plan to resign of his own volition. He expressed his concern that the Freedom and Solidarity (SaS), which left the government at the beginning of this month might join forces with other opposition parties in Parliament to obstruct the discussion and vote on the budget. "Until the last moment, however, I will believe that there will be no politicking in this critical situation and that there will be at least a few responsible MPs who won't leave people in the lurch," the minister said. Nevertheless, Matovič admitted that failure to adopt the budget would in fact lead to a snap general election. "A provisional budget would be unsustainable then," he said.
Erik Tomáš, independent MP affiliated with the non-parliamentary Voice-SD party said that the independents from Voice would not support the draft budget. "For one thing, it will certainly be anti-social and for another, early elections are our goal. This government must end as soon as possible," he stressed.
The existence of the incumbent minority Government and Parliament makes sense only as long they can provide aid to the public said Labour Minister Milan Krajniak (of the We Are Family party). He added that if this ability disappears by any means, there will be no point in continuing. "When the Government and Parliament stop working, they have to be dissolved," the minister remarked. Nevertheless, Krajniak expressed his belief that the coalition would manage to approve the state budget for next year "at least in some form".
Source: TASR
