Parliament Will Vote on Capping Retirement Age in November

Bratislava, October 23 (TASR) – Parliament will definitely decide on the constitutional bill introducing retirement age caps at 64 years during its session slated to be held in November, TASR learnt on Tuesday.

MP for Smer-SD Jan Podmanicky submitted in the plenary session a procedural proposal in the name of the coalition on the grounds that the parties want to find consensus on this. Smer-SD needs a constitutional majority, meaning also votes from the Opposition, for the final approval of the law. However, the senior governing party didn’t have them at all as Ordinary People (OLaNO) and We Are Family presented their own proposal at the last minute. Opposition SaS rejected the proposal, junior governing Most-Hid party was also critical about the draft but its MPs were free to vote according to their discretion. The far-right LSNS and the Slovak National Party (SNS) planned to support the proposal.

The opposition OLaNO and We Are Family movements presented a new draft on Tuesday at the last minute. They supported the constitutional proposal in its first reading, however the parties conditioned their further support for the introduction of the pension age caps with a more advantageous position for women whose retirement age could be reduced for raising children. OLaNO leader Igor Matovic also pointed to the fact that the current constitutional bill is unfair in terms of the number of years worked, which is different for every person, but the pension cap of 64 years should be related to every one. The party therefore proposes that people who have worked for 40 years should be able retire earlier at their own discretion.

“We’re willing to talk about everything, but Igor Matovic’s proposal is aimed at avoiding losing face before the voters, because OLaNO originally supported the initiative of introducing the retirement age caps. We’re still interested in the votes of OLaNO members,” stated Smer-SD MP Erik Tomas.