The March 13 parliamentary session (source: TASR)
The 28th parliamentary session, starting on March 13, began with a one-minute moment of silence to pay tribute to the murdered journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée, Martina Kušnírová.
“Such crime is unacceptable in democratic society,” said Deputy Speaker of Parliament Béla Bugár (Most-Híd), as quoted by the TASR newswire.
The MPs then continued working, discussing about half of its scheduled programme. However, the discussion was accompanied by several problems as the assembly hall was nearly empty after several deputies, both coalition and opposition, left the room. As a result, the deputy speakers of the parliament were forced to announce a short break several times, TASR reported.
Several ministers were also missing, like Economy Minister Peter Žiga (Smer), and Deputy PM for Investments and Informatisation, Peter Pellegrini (Smer), who was substituted by Health Minister Tomáš Drucker (Smer nominee).
Some opposition MPs leave the assembly hall
Responding to the current development and political crisis, the opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) claimed it would not attend the sessions until March 19, when a no-confidence vote against Prime Minister Robert Fico will be held.
In addition, the party withdrew all of its proposals from current session, the MPs told the press on March 13.
SaS representatives explained that since Most-Híd is ready to support early elections or leave the coalition, the government has in fact fallen apart. The party believes early elections are the only solution to the current crisis. As a result, the parliament, in its current shape, cannot pretend to have legitimacy and adopt important amendments to the laws, explained Lucia Ďuriš Nicholsonová, as reported by TASR.
Unlike SaS, the Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OĽaNO) did not withdraw its proposals.
“We’ll keep our proposals because they are important,” said OĽaNO MP Veronika Remišová, as quoted by TASR.
