The three opposition parties - SDKÚ-DS, KDH, and SMK - submitted several joint legislative proposals to parliament on March 18 designed to ward off the effects of the global recession, the TASR newswire wrote.
Originally, the opposition wanted to recommend its proposals to the government for fast-track procedures through an extraordinary session of Parliament. Because the governing coalition blocked such a session, the opposition is now submitting them through the normal legislative process. When draft legislation is submitted, MPs must wait at least 15 days before beginning discussion in parliament, with the next session planned for mid-April.
“The opposition parties submitted to parliament on Wednesday [March 18]six proposed amendments to laws that we regard as being of key importance from the perspective of the (anti-crisis) measures – for the protection of existing jobs and to support the creation of new jobs,” SDKÚ-DS vice chairman Ivan Mikloš told journalists.
The proposals, which Mikloš estimated would annually require €664 million from the state budget, call for a decrease of taxes and levies, making the Labour Code more flexible and abolishing the National Property Fund (FNM).
The vice-chairman of the strongest opposition party also reproached the government for ascribing the global crisis as the source of all Slovakia’s economic problems, saying that some of the problems it causes itself.
To back up his assertion, Mikloš pointed out that over the past two years no major investments have come to Slovakia and that the growth of the Slovak economy was significantly slowing even without the influence of the global economic slowdown. Moreover, he said, the Government has been running down the business environment for two and half years.
“It is nonsense,” the prime minister’s spokesperson Silvia Glendová said in response to criticism of the government's handling of the economy, adding that she would not give any further comments on the opposition’s statements.
Opposition SMK vice-chairman Ivan Farkas also reproached the ruling coalition government by saying it had has been sticking to a state budget that has been unrealistic.
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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