Fico's Government Gains Vote of Confidence, MPs Approve Its Manifesto
Robert Fico's (Smer-SD) cabinet has gained Parliament's confidence, as MPs approved its government manifesto on Tuesday.
Bratislava, November 21 (TASR) - Robert Fico's (Smer-SD) cabinet has gained Parliament's confidence, as MPs approved its government manifesto on Tuesday.
Seventy-eight MPs of the 143 present for the vote backed the manifesto, while 65 voted against.
The premier submitted the government manifesto to MPs last week, asking them to express confidence in his cabinet. The parliamentary debate took four days, with over 70 MPs taking the floor, mainly from the opposition. They criticised the manifesto for a lack of specific and clear targets. At the end of the debate, Fico thanked all the speakers, adding that the government members listened to all speeches and found many inspirational ideas in several of them.
In line with the Slovak Constitution, every new government must submit its manifesto and ask parliament for a vote of confidence within 30 days of its appointment.
Following the vote on the government manifesto, Parliamentary Chair Peter Pellegrini (Voice-SD) suspended the session until 2 p.m. MPs should deal with two more government bills via short-track legislative procedures during the ongoing session. The first one concerns 13th pensions and the other a categorisation of constitutional health care.
