The Slovak Government on January 16 recommended that Parliament pass a constitutional amendment that would abolish MPs' immunity from prosecution for misdemeanors, but stopped short of approving the measure, which requires the support of at least 90 lawmakers in the 150-seat Parliament. The bill, if passed, would force MPs to submit to breath tests when suspected of drunk driving, and would allow prosecution for illegal parking or speeding.
The measure, which has been proposed by main coalition party Smer-SD MPs Pavol Paška, Miroslav Číž and Mojmír Mamojka, will be voted on at the next parliamentary session in January. Apart from Smer, it is backed by the three opposition parties in Parliament - SDKÚ-DS, the ethnic-Hungarian SMK and the Christian Democrats (KDH). The coalition partners ĽS-HZDS and the SNS stand opposed. The debate on Smer's legislative proposal was originally scheduled for December, but was postponed until January at the request of SNS legislator Rafael Rafaj, who cited the need to study more of the legal rules that would be affected. TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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