If Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico publicly vows that MPs' immunity from prosecution for any crimes they commit will be scrapped by September 1, Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party will withdraw its legislative proposal to this effect from the current parliamentary session, SaS chairman Richard Sulík told a press conference on May 9, as reported by the TASR newswire.
SaS's statement follows a request by Speaker of Parliament Pavol Paška (Smer) for SaS, with 11 MPs, to withdraw its proposal as abolishing parliamentary immunity requires the support of at least 90 MPs – a constitutional majority. Smer announced that it would not support SaS's bill and if the draft is defeated it could not return to parliament for at least six months, TASR wrote. MPs’ immunity from prosecution for misdemeanour offences as well as the immunity of other public officials was scrapped by a vote of parliament in early February, TASR noted.
Sulík stated that MPs' immunity for misdemeanours would never have been abolished had it not been for SaS and rejected the suggestion that SaS is only aiming to score political points from its initiative. He said his party is ultimately ready to vote for Smer's proposal.
Responding to Paška's recent suggestion that a working team should be set up in parliament with responsibility for preparing a constitutional law, SaS MP Jozef Kollár said that "no round tables or working groups are needed, as we all know what abolition of immunity is all about”.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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