Both outgoing Prime Minister Iveta Radičová and President Ivan Gašparovič will attend the first session of the newly-elected parliament on April 4 and at about noon Gašparovič will appoint the incoming cabinet of Robert Fico whose party won a landslide victory in the March 10 elections, the SITA newswire reported. It is not known if Radičová or Gašparovič will deliver speeches to parliament according to both officials’ press spokespersons.
The parliamentary session will begin at 10:00 and will have two parts. Initially, all 150 newly-elected MPs will take their oath of office, including those who now serve as cabinet ministers. Then Speaker of Parliament Pavol Hrušovský will interrupt the session and
President Gašparovič will appoint the new cabinet and the cabinet led by Radičová will automatically lose its mandate. The Radičová cabinet has operated in a caretaker role since October 2011 when it lost a confidence vote in parliament over changes to the eurozone bailout fund.
After the appointment of the new cabinet, the parliamentary session will continue by swearing in alternate MPs who will take the seats of MPs who are appointed to the new cabinet. Then the session will establish the parliamentary committee on mandates and immunity that will verify if all MPs were duly elected to parliament.
Parliament will then elect its speaker; Smer’s nominee is the party’s deputy chairman, Pavol Paška. Four deputy speakers will then be elected. Renáta Zmajkovičová and Jana Laššáková are nominated by Smer and Ján Figeľ from the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) and Erika Jurinová from the Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OĽaNO) are nominated. Then MPs will establish parliamentary committees and elect their chairs and assign MPs to the individual committees.
Source: SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
