All 62 lawmakers from the largest opposition party, Smer, left parliament en masse late on Wednesday, March 30, in protest at a decision by Speaker of Parliament Richard Sulík to submit the result of Tuesday's chaotic vote – during which a bill that wasn't on the official agenda was passed, apparently in error, by MPs – for examination by parliament's constitutional committee.
Former speaker Pavol Paška (Smer) said that Sulík should have made such a decision immediately after the puzzling vote on Tuesday. "Don't trade in the rules of procedure!" Paška told Sulík before leaving the house, as quoted by the TASR newswire. Former interior minister Robert Kaliňák called on Sulík to "give it up" as speaker.
MPs on Tuesday approved a bill that was supposed to have been postponed until parliament’s May session. The legislation, an amendment to the Act on Inappropriate Conditions in Business Relations – which largely concerns the relationship between large retail chains and their suppliers – was somehow tabled and passed despite not actually being on the agenda.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
