Five Ex-MPs Who Occupied Podium with Cake to Lose Half of April Salaries

Bratislava, April 23 (TASR) – Former MPs Martin Poliacik, Jozef Mihal, Simona Petrik, Viera Dubacova and Alan Suchanek, who occupied the podium in Parliament day and night before and after being instructed to leave the chamber by then parliamentary chairman Andrej Danko in February, will be stripped of half of their salaries for April, current Parliamentary Chairman Boris Kollar (We Are Family) decided on Thursday.

Meanwhile, another former MP from the group, Miroslav Beblavy, will receive his full salary for April, as Kollar acknowledged his appeal in which Beblavy claimed that he was expelled for only one day.

Although the general election in Slovakia took place in late February, former MPs will still receive salaries – for two or even three months after their mandates expired, depending on how long they served in Parliament.

The group of MPs in February, bringing along a large wedding cake, attempted to filibuster Parliament by seizing control of the podium in order to thwart a package of social measures of the-then government a few days before the general election. The cake was supposed to symbolise a marriage between governing parties Smer-SD, the Slovak National Party (SNS) and the far-right People’s Party Our Slovakia, with the aforementioned MPs claiming that a deal had been struck between them.