President: Founding House Session to Be Held on Wednesday, October 25

       Bratislava, October 20 (TASR) - President Zuzana Caputova has set the date of the founding House session for Wednesday, October 25, TASR has learnt from her spokesman Martin Strizinec.
       According to Strizinec, the session should start at 10 a.m. The head of state has asked outgoing Parliamentary Chair Boris Kollar (We Are Family) to announce the venue and date of the founding session to the newly elected MPs.
       Strizinec also said that the president will appoint the new government only after a new nomination for the environment minister post is supplied to her.
       Caputova informed Smer-SD leader Robert Fico on Thursday that she won't appoint elected MP Rudolf Huliak, whom SNS wants to nominate for the post of environment minister. Caputova pointed to constitutional-legal reasons that prevent Huliak from holding the post. She claims that his appointment would not guarantee that the ministry would function properly.
       The founding House session must be held within 30 days of the announcement of the results of the general election. Newly-elected MPs will be sworn in at the session. A new parliamentary chair and vice-chairs will be elected, parliamentary caucuses and committees will be formed.
       The general election in Slovakia was won by the Smer-SD party, which will have 42 MP seats. It was followed by Progressive Slovakia with 32 seats and Voice-SD with 27. The coalition of 'OLANO and Friends', Christian Union and 'For the People' also made it into parliament with 16 MP seats, as did the Christian Democrats (12), Freedom and Solidarity (11) and the Slovak National Party (10).