Fico: I Was Ready to Combine Vote on Consolidation with Confidence in Cabinet

(STVR, 'Sobotne dialogy', October 5) Speaking on Radio Slovakia's politics programme 'Sobotne dialogy' (Saturday Dialogues), Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) said that if there were nonsensical proposals to change the consolidation package or if someone wasn't ready to vote for consolidation, he was ready to combine the vote on it with a vote of confidence in the government. "We did a similar thing in the past, when I was the prime minister, when we combined an important vote on a law with a vote of confidence in the government," pointed out Fico. Since the ruling coalition guaranteed the presence of MPs during the vote on the consolidation package, there was no need to proceed to a vote of confidence in the government, he stated. Fico said that he's trying to bring calm to the coalition and admitted that neither he likes the disputes between the junior coalition Voice-SD and SNS parties. However, he said the coalition had shown stability and cohesion during the vote on consolidation. The premier also stated that he considers the fact that the post of the House chair is vacant to be a minor problem alongside all the other issues he's dealing with. However, he doesn't think that the dispute over the post will be resolved by the end of the year. "We're asking ourselves whether it should stay like this, that Peter Ziga (Voice-SD) would be the acting parliamentary chair until the end of the election term, or whether some other solution will come," noted the prime minister. Fico also doesn't think that the coalition is in crisis. He would consider it to be a crisis if Parliament or the government weren't functioning and they weren't able to make decisions. "Has something fallen in the government? Has something fallen in Parliament? Everything that was planned was approved," he concluded. am