Health Minister emerges unscathed from second no-confidence vote

Health Minister Viliam Čislák has retained his job after the Opposition's second attempt to dismiss him through a no-confidence motion in Parliament failed on Friday. Only 38 out of 112 lawmakers present voted in favour of Čislák's ouster to cap off deliberations that had taken nine hours. The initiative to dismiss Čislák was spearheaded by 40 parliamentarians from the Christian Democrats (KDH), Ordinary People (OĽaNO) and Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) parties. "Minister Čislák doesn't want to address problems in health care and doesn't want to make its processes more transparent," said KDH vice-chairman Július Brocka. He pointed to the case of former director of state-run health insurer VšZP Marcel Forai, who signed a contract with a company owned by his aunt. Brocka maintains that Čislák has not done anything to prevent such cases from recurring. This was the 12th non-confidence motion in this term of office for Smer-SD, which has a simple majority of seats in Parliament.