The governing coalition partnership with the Slovak National Party (SNS) is becoming problematic for Prime Minister and Smer party chairman Robert Fico, political analysts said on Tuesday, May 5, after Fico announced that he intends to dismiss Environment Minister Ján Chrbet (an SNS nominee).
“It's quite possible that he [Fico] will look for early parliamentary elections,” analyst Juraj Marušiak told the TASR newswire. “As the [economic] crisis is ongoing, this may be the last chance for him to come out of the elections with a relatively good result and also have a relatively stable government in a second term,” he added.
Analyst Rastislav Tóth also said that the government may not last its whole term, pointing to what he called “a crisis of governance”. “Individual ministers obviously view their ministries as their personal property and don’t respect the prime minister's requirements,” Tóth said, describing Chrbet's dismissal as a good move.
According to Marušiak, the SNS has no alternative other than to remain in Fico’s Government. “Its coalition potential is limited to Fico. Remaining in the government is currently very advantageous for the SNS,” he said. Marušiak also pointed out that although Fico has dismissed ministers who had access to some of the most significant sources of money, this doesn’t automatically mean that he has also halted such access completely. He added that Fico has decided to act quickly against corruption, as the scandal around former construction minister Janušek, another SNS nominee who was dismissed in April, had been lingering for months and has affected Smer’s voter support. TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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