PS Concerned that Proposals to Dismiss Several Ministers May Be Postponed Again

Bratislava, March 24 (TASR) - The opposition Progressive Slovakia (PS) party has submitted 27 legislative drafts for the next regular parliamentary session due to start on Tuesday (March 25), PS caucus chair Martin Dubeci and its vice-chair Zuzana Mesterova told a news conference on Monday, pointing out that a regular session hasn't been held for several months now. PS wants to promote, for example, restrictions on media ownership by public officials and the introduction of flexible maternity and paternity leave. "We do realise that our proposals, as opposition ones, don't have much chance of passing with this coalition, but our experience from previous months is that if a proposal seems good to the governing coalition, it will be inspired and submit its own version. So, I believe that even if they don't support our proposals at this session, they'll at least be inspired by them," said Mesterova. Dubeci informed the media about further procedures for PS MPs at the upcoming parliamentary session. He said that the MPs won't take part in the election of the House chair. According to the information available to Dubeci, the election should be held on Tuesday or Wednesday (March 26). At the same time, he stated that the coalition is taking a risk with the election, as it isn't clear whether Voice-SD's nominee Richard Rasi will receive enough votes. Dubeci thinks that there's no agreement within the coalition on other personnel elections that are on the agenda of the session, either. "I'm guessing that many of these elections will be invalid or no candidate will be elected," he said. He also expressed his concerns that opposition proposals to dismiss several ministers will be postponed from this session to another session again. ko/df