MORNING NEWS HIGHLIGHTS - Sunday, September 8, 2024 - 9 a.m.

TASR brings a quick morning overview of the most important events seen in Slovakia on the previous day (Saturday, September 7): BRATISLAVA - 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. BRATISLAVA - Speaking on Radio Slovakia's politics programme 'Sobotne dialogy' (Saturday Dialogues), Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) said that without MPs for the Voice-SD party, a parliamentary session with a no-confidence vote in House Vice-Chair Michal Simecka (Progressive Slovakia/PS) can't be opened. The premier added that everything is in the hands of Voice-SD. The coalition doesn't have enough MPs to open the session without Voice-SD. "Voice must say whether it wants Simecka to leave his post," said Fico, adding that Voice-SD is so far putting pressure on Simecka to resign on his own, without a vote of no confidence in Parliament. Since the PS chief is not going to leave, Voice-SD will have to make a decision, stated the prime minister. "It's in the hands of Voice whether or not Simecka will fall," he added. "We're waiting to see whether Voice will open the session and then what position it will assume to the actual vote," he stated, adding that Smer-SD has 42 MPs in Parliament and SNS has ten lawmakers and they need a total of 76 MPs. BRATISLAVA - The ruling coalition has a parliamentary majority, so it's at least strange that it hasn't yet reached an agreement on the post of House chair, political scientist Juraj Marusiak from the Slovak Academy of Sciences told TASR. The political scientist also considers this to be a signal to the public about the relations within the coalition, although it's obvious, according to him, that a break-up of the ruling coalition over this issue can't be expected. Marusiak stated that the vacant post of parliamentary chair doesn't paralyse the activities of Parliament, since according to the Constitution it is represented by vice-chairs. "The problem is that the Constitution doesn't define who becomes the acting chair in case of absence or vacancy of the post, according to which key the designated chair is selected from among deputy chairpersons. It is practically in the hands of informal and constitutionally unregulated agreements at the level of the ruling coalition," opined Marusiak. BUDAPEST - Slovakia is likely to be one of the fastest ageing economies in the EU due to the demographic crisis, stated Investments, Regional Development and Informatisation Minister Richard Rasi (Voice-SD), who attended a meeting of ministers in Budapest on Friday (September 6), ministry's communication department told TASR. The ministers discussed solutions to cohesion policy in the context of demographic change. "The latest projections show that long-term trends such as rising age averages, falling birth rates and declining numbers of people of working age continue to prevail and we're likely to be among the fastest ageing economies in the EU, which is starting to cause us huge economic problems," said the head of the Investments Ministry. Demographic changes in Slovakia must be addressed because, according to the ministry, they represent a major obstacle to competitiveness in the long term. They also have a significant impact on the deepening of disparities between individual regions. Rasi added that the consequence of these changes is also a shortage of employees in various areas. BRATISLAVA - Slovakia needs to have an economic policy that will be binding for several periods of time; it will be a signal for foreign investors and Slovak entrepreneurs, MP for the Christian Democrats (KDH) Jozef Hajko said at a press conference this week, adding that they are willing to discuss it. According to Hajko, economic policy is currently focused only on the automotive industry. "If we had a policy, let's define whether we're really going to continue our one-sided orientation towards the automotive industry. Slovakia needs sophisticated production with higher added value," stressed the lawmaker. According to him, the government doesn't have a clear concept of how it wants to promote the sale of electric vehicles. The issue of the charging network is also unresolved. He pointed out that sales of electric cars in Europe are falling steeply. "We see this as an unwise step, which was taken when the ban on the production of internal combustion engines after 2035 was approved. This decision was made at the table," noted Hajko, adding that Europe is struggling with the import of cheaper electric cars from China. am