Gaspar: Special House Session Nothing But Exercise in Opposition Theatrics

Bratislava, January 29 (TASR) - The special emergency session of Parliament on ousting the government was nothing but a theatrical display staged by the opposition, and the coalition approached it accordingly, announcing in advance that it wouldn't participate, stated House Vice-chair Tibor Gaspar (Smer-SD) on Wednesday. Gaspar criticised the fact that another session regarding an ouster attempt took place last week, but the opposition withdrew its motion when the session was changed by the coalition from a public one to one held behind closed doors. "It was announced in advance that coalition lawmakers wouldn't attend. We treated this session as a theatrical display by the opposition because they could have debated it with us last week, but they didn't want to hold a debate and left. This was despite the fact that the reasons to convene are the same again," Gaspar told journalists. Gaspar claimed that the reasons why the opposition is pursuing the dismissal of Robert Fico's (Smer-SD) cabinet are irrelevant. One of the stated reasons is that the coalition has been changing Slovakia's foreign affairs orientation, which Gaspar rejects. "We are meeting and will continue to meet our commitments when it comes to the EU and NATO," he added. mf/df