Speaker of Parliament Pavol Paška survived a parliamentary non-confidence motion on November 27.
Out of 111 MPs present in 150-member parliament, 59 supported the motion. The opposition would have needed 76 votes to succeed in its attempt to oust the Speaker of Parliament.
The opposition accused the speaker of mishandling the draft bill on social insurance. The parties reproached Paška for flagrantly breaking the law and discouraging democracy, by instructing the parliamentary legislative office to publish the draft bill on the parliament website in a form different than the one approved by parliament.
Paška omitted a clause proposed by an opposition MP and approved by parliament, which contradicted an earlier motion.
After this came to light and under public pressure, Paška sent the approved version of the bill to the president, containing the two contradictory clauses.
Before the vote, Paška said he did not think he made any mistake. He said the situation was very embarrassing, but he is not someone who could not defend his actions. He said that he would bear the responsibility when he felt the need to do so, but that was not the case with the motion.
-SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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