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The budget approved without opposition
Máte problém s prehrávaním? Nahláste nám chybu v prehrávači.
On Thursday, the parliament approved the budget for 2024. The deficit is expected to fall below 6% of GDP in the next year.
The consolidation measures will be at the level of half a percent of GDP. State revenue should be higher than 22 and a half billion euros, but expenditures, on the other hand, are expected to be higher than 30 billion. Prime Minister Robert Fico: „The current deficit is 7.5 billion. Next year, we will need to consolidate more. But we also want to significantly promote economic growth in order to be better prepared for further consolidation and finance social measures.“
Fico expects the budget to be approved by the president.
The decision was preceded by large obstructions of the opposition. Opposition MPs held the floor for several hours. In reaction, the Speaker of the Parliament, Peter Pellegrini from the coalition Hlas SD party, closed the sitting before all the speakers had taken the floor. In protest, most of the opposition left the parliament and not a single opposition MP took part in the voting.
Milan Majerský of the KDH party considers the coalition step as a kind of censorship: „The coalition has no right to stop the discussion about a law as important as the state budget in this way. Despite the fact that the OLaNO party obstructed the debate. It is not a good precedent.“
The Opposition wants to appeal to the Constitutional Court, they consider the decision of the Speaker as a violation of the procedure. The coalition, however, claims that the law was passed in a legitimate way and sees the opposition's decision to leave the session as a sign of their resignation.
Source: TASR, RTVS
