Premier: It Seems That Either Danko Will Be House Chair or Ziga Will Keep Post

(STVR, 'Sobotne dialogy', September 7) The situation with the post of parliamentary chair may get to the point that either Slovak National Party (SNS) head Andrej Danko will become the new House chair or Parliament will continue to be headed by Parliamentary Vice-Chair Peter Ziga (Voice-SD) until the end of the electoral term, Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) said on Radio Slovakia's politics programme 'Sobotne dialogy' (Saturday Dialogues). Fico supports Danko for this post, but an election in Parliament won't take place until there is a 100-percent agreement in the coalition that the chairman will be elected. The premier confirmed that the new head of Parliament won't be elected at the September session. "It seems that either Andrej Danko will be the House chair or Peter Ziga will remain acting parliamentary chair until the end of this election term. Maybe we'll get that far at some point," said Fico, adding that he sees no reason to reconstruct the government for the sake of agreeing on a new House chair. Fico supports Danko's candidacy, but only if there's an agreement. According to him, Parliament will elect its head only if the agreement is "signed in blood". "If SNS and Voice agree on some conditions that it will be somebody else than Andrej Danko, I'll respect such an agreement," he said. am