Parliamentary Session to Dismiss Kalinak Adjourned to September

Bratislava, July 6 (TASR) – Coalition lawmakers decided on Wednesday to postpone the parliamentary session on the ouster of Interior Minister Robert Kalinak (Smer-SD) to Tuesday, September 6, based on the motion of Parliamentary Chairman Andrej Danko (Slovak National Party/SNS).

The Opposition responded to this by chanting “shame”.

Danko claimed that the session needs to be postponed due to various activities of the Parliament linked to the Slovakia’s Council of the EU Presidency. He also called upon the lawmakers to act rationally, as he has now given the Opposition the opportunity to deliberate.

The extraordinary session on Kalinak’s dismissal began on Thursday, June 30. Danko adjourned it, however, when OLaNO-NOVA leader Igor Matovic brought a banner to the House with photographs of Ladislav Basternak and Kalinak, reading: “Decent people pay taxes, thieves live off them”.

Subsequently, Danko urged Matovic to remove the banner, claming, for instance, that Kalinak had not given his approval for publishing his photograph. According to Danko, the offending banner was an obstacle to the continuation of the session. When the OLaNO-NOVA leader failed to comply, the parliamentary chairman adjourned the session.

On Friday, following an MP’s gremium session, Danko declared that the extraordinary session had to be adjourned because the risk of physical conflict in the House was imminent, a claim that the Opposition denies.

As well, Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) was to face a no-confidence vote in absentia as of 10 a.m. earlier in the day. However, the Parliament lacked a quorum, hence the Fico no-confidence session has been adjourned until Thursday (July 7) morning.