Michelko: It's Absolutely Misguided to Interpret Vote as Breach of Agreement

Bratislava, 29 September (TASR) - It is absolutely misguided to speak of a breach of the coalition agreement when it concerns the party's own nominee, SNS parliamentary caucus leader Roman Michelko declared after a vote on the dismissal of Environment Minister Tomas Taraba (a SNS nominee) on Tuesday.

"The first principle of the coalition agreement is that our party nominates and withdraws its own nominees. It is absolutely misguided to speak of a breach of the coalition agreement when we are talking about our own nominee. If we had done this with a Voice or Smer nominee, fine, I would accept that," Michelko told reporters. "We exercised a right that is enshrined in the coalition agreement, perhaps in a less standard way, but only because the prime minister did not act in a standard manner either," he underlined.

"I believe he will cool down and then talks will probably begin," Michelko said when asked what reaction he expected from Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) after this. SNS views Taraba's dismissal as the restoration of authority that some people were reluctant to grant the party. Michelko reiterated that they had wanted to proceed in the standard way in Taraba's case. "The second the prime minister withdrew our request for his dismissal, he left us no choice," he explained.

Earlier on Tuesday, Parliament dismissed Taraba as deputy prime minister and environment minister by 77 votes. Several SNS MPs supported the motion alongside the opposition. SNS leader Andrej Danko justified this by saying that his party had exhausted all options in seeking Taraba's departure.