Party suspends membership in ruling coalition

At a press briefing on Thursday, the party chied stressed that they would not change their decision until the prime minister resigns.

English POLITIKA 2021. MÁRCIUS 25. 12:55

The liberal Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party will not participate in the work of Slovakia s four-party coalition government until PM Igor Matovic (OĽANO – Simple People and Independent Personalities) resigns, party leader Richard Sulik announced at a press conference today.

The party chairman held a press conference after President Zuzana Caputova accepted the resignation of ministers Branislav Grohling and Ivan Korcok, delegated by SaS. With them, a total of five ministers have resigned in the course of a few weeks due to the coalition crisis.

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Slovakia s government crisis erupted in early March over the procurement of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, which caused a rift in the four-party coalition. For the People (Za ľudí) and the Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party led by Richard Sulik were the most vocal in criticising Prime Minister Igor Matovic (OĽANO) and his fellow party member Marek Krajci over the procurement of the jab. Mr Krajci later resigned as health minister.

According to Richard Sulik, the current situation is nothing more than the result of Igor Matovic s struggle to stay in power. According to Sulik, both conditions (the resignation of Sulik and Kolikova) set by the PM for him to step down have been met. 

Mr Matovic also made it a further condition for his resignation that the coalition redistribute ministerial positions based on the balance of power formed in last spring s parliamentary elections. This was rejected by Richard Sulik back on Monday.

Mr Sulik said that he was only willing to continue coalition talks after the prime minister has left. The party announced that the new government should be led by the person the presidents entrusts.

Sulik thinks it s not a good idea for Mr Matovic to continue his work in another government position after his resignation. (According to news reports, Mr Matovic wants to be a deputy prime minister in charge of fighting graft in the new government).

Defence Minister Jaroslav Naď (OĽANO) also said on Thursday that fundamental issues related to the continued functioning of the coalition government should be resolved by the parliamentary session slated for early next week.

According to Mr Naď, the prime minister has not yet resigned because there is no agreement on the post of outgoing ministers and the prime minister must resign last. If no agreement is reached, Naď can also envision a three-party coalition, instead of the current four-party formation.
 
Naď called the resignation of the ministers a „completely unnecessary theatre performance.” He pointed out that Matovic had already stated on Sunday (21 March) that he would resign after everything was agreed upon, and the whole current government would cease to operate. „It is completely unnecessary and at the same time theatrical for them to submit their resignation a few days before the whole government resigns. All the more so, if the first sentence after their resignation is that they want to return to their post the next day” he said according to a report by TASR, Slovakia s state news agency.
 

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coalition, crisis, government, igor matovic, richard sulík, Slovakia, v4