The Parliament will ultimately discuss amending the Act on the Organisation of the Constitutional Court in a fast-track procedure. The Cabinet approved this option to resolve the stalemate at the Constitutional Court that arose in connection with the disputed Prosecutor General election in Parliament. The stalemate at the Court occurred after both parties involved in the proceedings, namely President Ivan Gašparovič and the elected candidate for Prosecutor General Jozef Centes, objected to the bias of all but one judge of the Constitutional Court.
The Cabinet draft argues that it is impossible to secure the proceedings and decision-making of the Constitutional Court to the full extent of its powers as almost all judges are disqualified, and the participants of the proceedings object to their bias. That leads to a state when it is not possible to decide on the matter. According to the proposal, the Court won't take into account repeated complaints against bias filed by the parties involved and will have the Court's plenum decide on the matter. The dysfunctional state of the Prosecutor-General's Office is becoming “relatively significant, and we can't afford this”, stated Prime Minister Robert Fico after the Government’s decision to pass the amendment to Parliament on Tuesday. He further announced that the Government won't initiate a new Prosecutor General election in Parliament before the Constitutional Court decides on Jozef Centes' request.
Ordinary People MP Richard Vasecka plans to convene a session of the Defence and Security Committee in order to have Prime Minister Robert Fico explain the reasons behind the fast-tracked procedure for the bill, which he promised he would not do, claims Vasecka. We are witnesses to the destruction of legal certainty in Slovakia, of interfering with the independence of the judiciary and with a specific ongoing court trial, stated in reaction to the Government’s decision leader of the opposition Christian Democrats Pavol Hrušovský. Their party will not participate in the debate on the amendment if fast-tracked proceedings are launched, Hrušovský said. Similar stances were expressed before the beginning of the parliamentary discussion by the opposition SDKU and Most-Hid parties.
Katarína Richterová
