Monitor: Fico: Election of New House Chair Not a Priority, Parliament Functional

(STVR, 'Sobotne dialogy', November 9) The election of new House chair is not a priority, as the Parliament is functional, Prime Minister Robert Fico declared on Radio Slovakia's politics programme 'Sobotne dialogy' (Saturday Dialogues). The top House post has been left vacant since the 2024 presidential election in April, when former chair Peter Pellegrini was elected the Slovak President. Fico reiterated that the coalition is not riven by any crisis and the dispute between MP Rudolf Huliak (Independent) and SNS chair Andrej Danko is an internal problem of SNS. According to the Prime Minister, the trio of independent lawmakers centered around Huliak hasn't demanded control of any Government ministry, Huliak himself doesn't want anything but signaled his continuing support for the coalition. "The governing coalition is functional, laws get passed in Parliament," emphasized Fico. The Prime Minister claimed he hasn't read the Lex Assassination Attempt and added that he won't spend any time to deal with ex-president Andrej Kiska (2014-19). However, Fico finds it an embarrassment for Slovakia that a convicted tax fraudster served as the country's president in the past. Fico also defended his appearance on the Russian state television. "You believe that Western propaganda doesn't exist?" he asked and added that his appearance on the Russian talk show was meant to demonstrate that Slovakia conducts a sovereign foreign policy. mf