On Friday December 16th at 13.30 President Zuzana Caputova dismissed the government of Eduard Heger and temporarily entrusted it with the performance of the function to a limited extent, but what comes next?
According to Richard Sulik (SaS), whose party initiated the no-confidence vote there are now 3 scenarios on the table. The first being an agreement in Parliament based on a government reconstruction, the second a caretaker government, which would be set up by the president, and the third an early election. President Zuzana Caputova has the full support of SaS. "She proved to be a stable element on the political scene when not only the government, but also Parliament was in chaos." he noted.
Speaker of Parliament Boris Kollar (Sme Rodina) declared after his meeting with President Caputova late Thursday (December 15) that early parliamentary election should be held in spring and believes that the snap election should be held at the earliest possible date.
Independent MPs affiliated with the extra-parliamentary Hlas-SD party, who currently lead the polls, won't take part in any new 'seventy-six', i.e. in a new coalition that might be formed from current MPs, said Hlas-SD leader and Independent MP Peter Pellegrini. The party insists on a snap election and has declared support for a change in the Slovak Constitution regarding the possibility of shortening parliament's term in office.
The opposition Smer-SD party welcomes the fact that Parliament has passed a no-confidence motion in the Government, and no better solution exists than a quick early election, Smer-SD chair Robert Fico declared on Thursday. "If we arrive at a deal on things related to the snap election, with the ideal date being May or early June, we're ready to talk about the necessary modifications to be made to the state budget proposal," said Fico. Fico underlined that after the collapse of the Government, a constitutional amendment must be passed on shortening the current electoral term. He called the referendum on an early election slated for January a fallback plan.
