THE GOVERNMENT of Mikuláš Dzurinda has some hope of survival after two deputies from the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS), Karol Džupa and Eduard Kolesár, joined the ruling coalition.
However, on September 20, parliament still remained deadlocked, with the ruling coalition lacking one vote to form a quorum of 76 deputies, the daily SME reported.
The agreement between Džupa and Kolesár and the group around Ľubomír Lintner, former member of the New Citizens' Alliance (ANO), evoked stormy debates within the opposition, which claims it is an obvious trade-off in deputy votes. Some even suggested that the departure of the two HZDS deputies happened with the knowledge and approval of HZDS leader Vladimír Mečiar.
However Mečiar said this was a lie. A member of the Lintner group, Jirko Malchárek, said that the deputies’ transfer of allegiance was a transparent political agreement.
Eduard Kolesár said that he switched to the opposing camp because he disagreed with HZDS voting with other opposition parties to block parliamentary sessions, and thereby prevent the replacement of the late governing-coalition SMK party MP Zsolt Komlósy.
"Such voting is incompatible with my conscience," said Kolesár.
Compiled by Beata Balogová from press reports
TheSlovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the informationpresented in its Flash News postings.
