Having Igor Matovič dismissed from the Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) caucus but letting the remaining three representatives of the Ordinary People faction stay indicates that the governing coalition will attempt to tear this group apart, political analyst Juraj Marušiak told the TASR newswire on Thursday, February 10.
He added that the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ), SaS and Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) didn't expect the amendment to the State Citizenship Act to create such a serious problem and, more importantly, underestimated how seriously Most-Híd chairman Béla Bugár would take the matter.
"Most-Híd didn't fare especially well in the municipal elections, which showed that the ethnic-Hungarian SMK [Hungarian Coalition Party] stands a real chance of returning to parliament. Both parties will now compete with each other as to who is more Hungarian," said Marušiak. Thus, the coalition will have to find a way to compensate Most-Híd over the withdrawal of the coalition amendment to the State Citizenship Act favoured by Most-Híd. At this point, Marušiak expects the coalition to make an effort to consolidate its ranks.
"One swallow does not a summer make, so it's too early to judge whether or not this is the end of the coalition," said political analyst Michal Horský. According to him, the coalition still has enough time to recover from the crisis. However, he said he regarded the statement made by Bugár – that the Coalition Agreement had been violated and that Most-Híd would not vote for any further coalition proposals until the situation was settled – as "politically hysterical". "The stance adopted by the Ordinary People faction is absolutely legitimate at this point, especially in the light of Béla Bugár's over-the-top reaction," said Horský.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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