Prime minister meets MPs to discuss government manifesto

Slovak Prime Minister Iveta Radičová will meet MPs from the governing coalition (made up of her own Slovak Christian and Democratic Union (SDKÚ), plus Freedom and Solidarity (SaS), the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) and Most-Híd) in parliament on Monday, August 2, to discuss the government manifesto due to be debated on August 3, the TASR newswire reported, citing the Government Office Press Department.

Slovak Prime Minister Iveta Radičová will meet MPs from the governing coalition (made up of her own Slovak Christian and Democratic Union (SDKÚ), plus Freedom and Solidarity (SaS), the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) and Most-Híd) in parliament on Monday, August 2, to discuss the government manifesto due to be debated on August 3, the TASR newswire reported, citing the Government Office Press Department.

Opposition lawmakers didn't receive an invitation to the meeting, said Slovak National Party (SNS) caucus leader Rafael Rafaj. SNS first vice-chair Anna Belousovová said that she wasn't surprised by this, given the negative stance of the opposition towards the manifesto, which has been announced publicly. "[Radičová's] political partners aren't able to guarantee that the government manifesto will be passed, so she has to work with individual MPs," said Belousovová. The stability of the coalition appeared to weaken last week when the Ordinary People faction within SaS complained that its ideas had not been included in the manifesto. It said that it would decide before the parliamentary session on Tuesday, August 3, whether it would remain within the SaS caucus.

The manifesto opens with a preamble which, among other things, contains a pledge to work out a constitutional law that would enable the so-called Mečiar amnesties to be quashed, TASR was told by KDH spokesman Martin Krajčovič. A series of amnesties issued in 1998 by Vladimír Mečiar, who at the time was prime minister and also acting president, have blocked investigation of a series crimes related to the 1995 abduction of a Slovak citizen (President Michal Kováč's son). According to the KDH, the new coalition's pledge to break the amnesties represents an attempt to "cope with the legacy of a totalitarian period when human rights were being ignored".

Source: TASR

Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.

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