Government Disagrees with Proposal for Matovic's Dismissal

Bratislava, July 23 (TASR) – The Cabinet disagreed with a proposal for Prime Minister Igor Matovic’s (OLaNO) dismissal at its session on Thursday morning preceding the special parliamentary session with a no-confidence motion in Matovic being a sole point on the agenda.

The parliamentary session will start at 10 a.m. The proposal to convene the session was submitted by opposition MPs Juraj Blanar (Smer-SD) and Richard Rasi (Independent) after the media reported that Matovic’s diploma thesis had been plagiarised. However, they also cited several other reasons why they want to oust him from the post. In addition to plagiarism and the failure to keep his promises as prime minister, opposition MPs cited his divergence from the Government Manifesto based on which the Government gained a vote of confidence. They also stated that Matovic is unprepared to meet constitutional tasks, in particular to allow the country to develop in economic and general terms. They also accuse him of failing to deal with the impacts of coronavirus and of lacking a comprehensive plan to transform Slovakia following the pandemic.

Matovic on Wednesday (July 22) said that if Parliament ousts him, he’ll step down as OLaNO chair and retire from politics. He declared that when drafting of the diploma thesis, he committed likely plagiarism unknowingly because he was sure at the time that he had used all the cited work appropriately.