Coalition shakes, Matovič twists and shouts

Plagiarism scandal is not over yet, but few believe it could be fatal for the ruling coalition.

Boris Kollár (left) and Igor Matovič. Boris Kollár (left) and Igor Matovič. (Source: Sme - Marko Erd)

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The coalition is split over Kollár’s permanence in the top parliamentary post. Another high-profile Threema name ends up behind bars, albeit briefly. The police corps president has left.

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Coalition split over the Speaker

The plagiarism scandal is not a closed case for the ruling coalition. While OĽaNO MPs said they are satisfied with the explanation that Kollár provided them at their caucus session last Monday, the SaS MPs joined the Za Ľudí party in their call on Kollár to step down.

To add some more drama to the affair, PM Igor Matovič and the OĽaNO parliamentary caucus, after sitting down with Kollár for three hours, took the view that “bothering” Mr Speaker about the way he earned his academic degree was not fair, even referring to it as a "lynching". Yet, they want to come up with a way to check all (or as many as possible) of the theses in Slovakia and possibly strip people of their degrees in the event their thesis proves to be plagiarised. Matovic assigned this task to the education minister from SaS and the justice minister from Za Ľudí.

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