Coalition Leaders Praise Budget Approval with Votes of All MPs Supporting Gov't

Bratislava, December 3 (TASR) - The coalition leaders have praised the approval of the state budget for next year, which was backed in Parliament by all 79 MPs supporting the governing coalition on Tuesday, with Smer-SD and Premier Robert Fico, Voice-SD leader and Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok and Slovak National Party (SNS) leader and House Vice-chair Andrej Danko expressing their thanks for the budget's approval at a joint press conference shortly after the vote. "I thank the [finance] minister for submitting a draft that was found by the European Commission (EC) to be realistic and helpful in terms of consolidating public finances. I thank the chairmen of the coalition parties for their support. You've seen that 79 MPs backed the budget, which means that Parliament is functional and we are going on," stated the premier. The Voice-SD leader also thanked all the lawmakers who supported the governing coalition. He also highlighted the decision of Rudolf Huliak and the two other SNS caucus defectors [to support the state budget law]. Danko believes that the approved state budget will help the government to cope with all the challenges next year. The budget's submitter, Finance Minister Ladislav Kamenicky (Smer-SD), also views Tuesday's approval positively. "Last but not least, many thanks to my colleagues from the Finance Ministry, who spent many nights, many months on what is the result of today's vote. I am very pleased that the Slovak Republic has a budget for next year that the European Commission evaluated as one of the eight best among all EU countries," he said. MPs approved the law on the state budget for next year on Tuesday, while acknowledging the general government budget for 2025-2027 with slight adjustments when compared to the government's original draft. The general government deficit should fall to 4.7 percent of GDP next year from this year's expected 5.8 percent of GDP. The state budget deficit should thus amount to €6.4 billion. ko/df