Slovak football referee and MP Ľuboš Micheľ informed Speaker of Slovak Parliament Pavol Paška on July 3 that he was leaving the opposition's SDKÚ party, but will continue to adhere to right-wing policies and a pro-European orientation as an independent MP, and will even retain his SDKÚ membership.
Micheľ, who refereed this year's Champions League final, said he had been mulling the decision for a long time, the TASR newswire wrote.
The crucial moment came when the SDKÚ did not vote for the Lisbon's Treaty’s ratification earlier this year, which was a result of the opposition trying to pressure the government into making changes to the Press Code. Another important moment for Micheľ was the attitude of the SDKÚ board towards its disgruntled members, who were expelled. A
fter Martin Kuruc and Juraj Liška, Michel is the third MP to leave the SDKÚ. It leaves the party with 28 MPs and raises the number of independent MPs to nine. TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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