Fico Will Recommend That Coalition MPs Should Override President's Veto

Bratislava, April 25 (TASR) - I'll recommend to MPs of the Smer-SD caucus as well as other MPs of the governing coalition that they should vote again for the law on the so-called 'COVID amnesty' and override President Peter Pellegrini's veto, Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) has posted on a social network, noting that he respects the constitutional right of the president to return a law passed by Parliament for reconsideration. "Just as we respect the president's right of veto, the president will undoubtedly respect the right of Parliament to override his veto. Should this be done during the May-June House session, the aggrieved citizens will have only a few weeks to file a claim for compensation," wrote the premier. Fico pointed out that the so-called COVID amnesty bill was introduced in Parliament by the government in the belief that the practices of previous governments in combating the COVID-19 pandemic were overwhelmingly unconstitutional and illegal and resulted in thousands of innocent victims. "Some of these practices have been declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court. Today, information is also coming to light about the 'quality' of the experimental COVID-19 vaccines and the perversity of the 'Vaccination is Freedom' campaign in support of vaccination," he stated, adding that in these circumstances he would recommend that MPs in the governing coalition should vote in favour of the law again. At the beginning of April, Parliament approved a bill to "remedy injustices caused to individuals" by anti-pandemic measures. The president didn't sign it on Friday and returned it with reservations to Parliament for reconsideration. The head of state doesn't agree with compensating all those who received fines from the state during the pandemic for violating pandemic measures. am/df