The Constitutional Court has started working with only one senate from Sunday (February 17). The "critical" situation occurred as a result of the fact that the terms of nine judges ended on Saturday and no new judges have been appointed. The chairperson of the senate will be Jana Baricová, and its members will include Miroslav Ďuriš, Jana Laššáková and Mojmír Mamojka. The current work schedule along with the addendum will be valid until a new work schedule is adopted by the Constitutional Court plenum created after new Constitutional Court judges are appointed. According to Parliamentary Chair Andrej Danko (Slovak National Party/SNS), a new vote for candidates for the Constitutional Court will take place at the next parliamentary session that starts on March 26.
"I am convinced that the coalition will agree on candidates for constitutional judges in a repeated election", stated the MP for the senior governing Smer-SD party Juraj Blanár on public service Radio and Television Slovakia's political debate on Sunday. Blanár further stated that the coalition did not elect enough candidates because the public ballot was unacceptable for the Smer-SD party. According to Justice Minister Gabor Gal from the junior coalition party Most-Hid, the next election could be secret if there is a guarantee that the Constitutional Court will be functional. In the first election, Most-Híd was a strong proponent of a public ballot. Also present in the debate, the opposition Ordinary People (OĽaNO) leader Igor Matovič expressed his thoughts that the goal of a secret election was to provide enough votes for Smer-SD Robert Fico to be chosen. Smer-SD allegedly held talks about this with representatives of the far right. Blanár rejected such an agreement. Moreover, Blanár points to the fact of whether President Andrej Kiska should be the one to appoint new constitutional judges. Kiska's term in office ends in mid-June.
