Gaspar Expects Talks on Whether Coalition Will Continue with 76 Votes

        Bratislava, 3 November (TASR) - We'll have to wait and see how the group of Independent MPs in Parliament, led by Tomas Taraba, intends to operate within the governing coalition, stated House Vice-chair Tibor Gaspar (Smer-SD) on Tuesday, adding that he expects political talks on whether the coalition will continue with 76 votes.
        Leader of the SNS parliamentary caucus Roman Michelko considers it to be essential for the coalition council to meet. According to him, the situation will be resolved by Tuesday of next week.
        "We need to start treating this as a fact; he's already informed us of this, and I assume that there will be some political discussions on whether we'll continue with 76 MPs or what the next steps will be," Gaspar told journalists regarding Independent MP Roman Malatinec's move to Taraba's project. He wants to wait for Taraba's statement on how his group intends to operate within the coalition. He doesn't know whether the coalition will function properly. "If I could predict the future, I'd tell you, but I can't," he replied when asked whether the coalition will be able to function without a snap election becoming necessary.
        According to MP Michal Bartek (Voice-SD), if the government is unable to fulfil its manifesto and the promises made to voters, it's appropriate to ask those "who are changing their views" how they envisage this happening or "at whose instigation they are acting in this way".
        Michelko also expects Taraba to state what he wants. "Unfortunately, such a bad habit has taken root here in Parliament, where someone uses such high-handed pressure to 'force through' their own agenda. But let Mr Taraba state exactly what he wants, if that is the case," Michelko told reporters. "We need to know where we stand, how many actual votes we have, and whether this trio of MPs supports us and under what circumstances," he replied when asked whether the lack of certainty regarding a majority of votes was the reason why Parliament won't be voting on debated bills throughout the entire sitting week.
        Independent MP Peter Slysko, who is also part of Taraba's project, stated that he wasn't in favour of there being no voting for the whole week. "We've always been saying that we're open to discussing any bill. We haven't said whether we'll support it or not. In this case, the coalition has decided that there will be no voting until the end of the week, and we have no choice but to respect that," said Slysko.
        According to him, neither an amendment regarding voting in elections from abroad, nor an amendment dealing with cooperating defendants is a priority given the current situation in Slovakia. "In all likelihood, we won't take a positive stance on this bill," he said regarding the amendment concerning the scrapping of postal voting. Slysko stated that the three MPs aren't setting any conditions. "We haven't come here to negotiate any conditions or anything of the sort. We're making it clear that we'll gladly support any laws that benefit the public and which we consider to be justified. We remain committed to cooperating with the coalition. As for the bill on cooperating defendants, there hasn't even been a debate on it yet, so we'll comment on that in due course," he added.
        MPs convened on Tuesday following a two-week recess. At the coalition's suggestion, Parliament decided that it won't vote on the proposals discussed for the remainder of the week. On Tuesday, Malatinec also announced his departure from the extra-parliamentary Rural Party and his support for the newly formed Taraba-Development of Slovakia party. Three Independent MPs are now involved in this project.