Premier: Rasi's Election Completion of Difficult Path to Stabilising Coalition

       Bratislava, March 26 (TASR) - The election of Richard Rasi (Voice-SD) as parliamentary chair is the completion of a difficult path leading to the stabilisation of the governing coalition, Premier Robert Fico (Smer-SD) said at a press conference after the announcement of the results of the election on Wednesday, adding that the election of the House chair with 79 votes also means that the governing coalition is returning to its original tracks.
        "Mr chairman, on behalf of all Smer-SD MPs, I'd like to congratulate you and I'm looking forward to working with you as well as with the President [Peter Pellegrini]," he said.
        Voice-SD leader and Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok is convinced that the new House chair meets the moral, professional and expert qualities for this post. In his opinion, the election of the parliamentary head is an important symbol for the continuation of the coalition. "We can also call it a kind of reboot and I believe that from today onwards we'll no longer deal with our internal problems," he stated.
        Chairman of the Slovak National Party (SNS) and Parliamentary Vice-chair Andrej Danko wished Rasi to be as good a House chair as Pavol Paska was. [Late former parliamentary chair Paska held the post for the Smer-SD party - ed. note]
        Rasi thanked all the MPs who had cast their votes in his favour. "Even as the House chair I'm only one of 150 MPs, I won't be able to prevent all the eccentricities and attacks of some MPs, but I can promise you that I'll devote myself to work for the people. I'll stand on the side of lawfulness and I'll try to conduct the deliberations of Parliament in such a way that Parliament's priority will be to improve the life of the people in Slovakia," he said.
        On Wednesday evening, 79 coalition MPs elected Rasi as the new head of Parliament. The post has been vacant since April 2024, when the then head of Parliament Peter Pellegrini won the presidential election. House Vice-chair Peter Ziga (Voice-SD) was entrusted with the management of Parliament in the interim.