Slovak prime minister: Giving up is not a solution

President demands snap election, but SaS and OLaNO are not sure.

Eduard Heger in parliament during the debate on the no-confidence vote. Eduard Heger in parliament during the debate on the no-confidence vote. (Source: Sme - Marko Erd)

Prime Minister Eduard Heger (OĽaNO) has been ousted and his government has been assigned to rule the country with limited powers until the parliament agrees on an early election. Yet, Heger insists he still has a vision to share with the country.

The meeting of leaders of parliamentary parties was scheduled for the morning of December 19 by Speaker of Parliament Boris Kollár to discuss the next steps for the parliament. They are to discuss the possibility of an early election, as well as the state budget for the next year, which the MPs have yet to pass. The meeting was, however, postponed until Monday evening.

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The Heger government was ousted in a no-confidence vote last Thursday. Heger formally submitted his resignation on Friday, December 16, into the hands of President Zuzana Čaputová.

Heger does not want to give up

The president appointed Heger and his ministers as the interim government with limited powers until a new government is formed. In this state, Heger’s cabinet is co-dependent with the president to an extent in matters of removing state officials or foreign policy.

At the same time, the president said that no option other than an early election is plausible at this point. OĽaNO as well as SaS, which initiated the no-confidence motion, do not necessarily agree.

“Giving up is not a solution,” Heger wrote on Facebook on Sunday. He wrote that democrats lost in parliament on Thursday, but that does not mean democracy needs to lose. “My personal philosophy wants me to continue and to not give up. Nobody should give up right now – that would be tampering with our own beliefs. It is what the mafia wants.”

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Mafia is how OĽaNO politicians refer to politicians of the former governments under Smer.

Heger wrote that he has a vision for Slovakia and he wants to present it to the country soon.

Not everyone wants an early election

To enact an early election, the parliament needs revise the Constitution in order to allow itself to shorten its own term. For this, 90 votes are needed in parliament.

The OĽaNO party and SaS suggest that they might look for an alternative solution to early elections.

Boris Kollár (Sme Rodina chair) does not dismiss the idea of an early election completely as said on the public-service broadcaster RTVS: “I will not reject ideas that will be in favor of people.”

Kollár however blames Hlas and SaS parties for the collapse of the government. The two parties contributed signatures for the no-confidence motion.

SaS wanted to negotiate the no-confidence vote – the party would support the government in exchange for Igor Matovič’s (OĽaNO chair) resignation from his position as finance minister. The politicians of the party did not rule out over the weekend that they might seek other solutions than early elections even now.

Meanwhile, OĽaNO is losing MPs. The 10 MPs that formed the civic-democratic platform that requested Matovič’s resignation to avert the fall of the government decided to leave OĽaNO. Environment Minister Ján Budaj confirmed that in an interview with Denník N. The formation came into existence after SaS left the ruling coalition earlier in autumn.

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