Yesterday, the President of the Slovak Republic, Peter Pellegrini, accepted the resignation of the Minister of Investment, Regional Development and Informatics, Richard Raši. At the suggestion of Prime Minister Robert Fico, he appointed Samuel Migal in his place, reminding him that he became a member of the government only on the basis of political agreements and not because he had received a strong mandate from the citizens in the elections or because he had intensively focused on the issue of the use of EU funds.
In his speech to the new Minister, the President of the Slovak Republic said that it is important for him and for the citizens of Slovakia that Slovakia has a good Minister at the head of an important ministry that plays a key role in ensuring the development of Slovak regions. "So I wish you, despite what I personally think about all this, to really get this task done for the benefit of the people," Pellegrini said. He said he would not create any artificial obstacles from his position as long as the legitimately elected government in the National Council of the Slovak Republic (NC SR) has sufficient strength and wants to continue to fulfil its mandate. "I hope, however, that today's act does not mark the beginning of a period when the only condition for filling a high state post will be a political agreement to secure the government's support in parliament," he stressed.
According to the President, it would be very dangerous for democracy if a few MPs were to rebel and put sufficient pressure on the rest of the governing coalition to fill the post of minister in the future. "And it would be very dangerous if this case inspires others who see the minister's chair as the only tool to promote their values," Pellegrini added. He also hopes that the coalition will be able to return to systematic and hard work for the people as soon as possible after the changes in the government and the election of the Speaker of Parliament.
He thanked the outgoing Raši for the work he had done. He believes that he has made undeniable progress in the use of EU funds. He hoped that the election of the President of Parliament would be successful and that Slovakia would finally have three duly elected top constitutional officials after almost a year.
The new ministers in the government, Samuel Migal and Rudolf Huliak, will be independent nominees and will be professionally and politically responsible only to the Prime Minister. Their appointment is the price for the restoration of the government majority and the result of the inability of the leadership of the Voice-SD and SNS to reach an agreement with their own MPs. This follows from a statement by Prime Minister Fico, published by on the social network.
"By replacing the new ministers and state secretaries with substitutes willing to support the ruling coalition, the ruling coalition not only gained the ability to pass laws in the National Assembly, but also, for example, to elect the President of the National Assembly," said Fico. He denied that the new head of the investment ministry, Migal, and Sports and Tourism Minister Huliak were Smer-SD nominees.
At the same time, Fico denies that he can easily absolve himself of responsibility for the negligence with which he drew up the candidate list. "In order to save the government coalition, with the enormous help of Robert Kaliňák (Smer-SD), I proceeded to an absurd political operation, which I have not only never done in 33 years in politics, but I have not even seen the absurdity of what took place in the ranks of the political party Hlas-SD," the Prime Minister pointed out. Fico thinks that President Pellegrini also showed frustration when he appointed Migal as investment minister.
The crisis, which has been going on for several weeks and which has resulted in an absurd political structure in the government, could have been resolved by the leadership of the SNS and Hlas-SD parties with the snap of a finger, according to Fico. The prime minister recalled that it is virtually impossible to govern with a narrow majority of 76 MPs. "On Monday, we will hold a coalition council to discuss the procedure for the upcoming meeting of the National Assembly and we will also talk about the election of a chair. Smer is honouring its commitment from the coalition agreement that the candidate for the post of president of the National Assembly will be proposed by the Voice, but we have to say how we got to this choice and thanks to whom," He concluded. A name is being bandied about - Richard Raši...
From 2004 to 2023, Migal worked as a reporter and presenter for the private television station Joj, then joined the Hlas-SD party. This January, he was expelled from the smaller ruling party along with another MP, Radomír Šalitroš. And who does Migalo think should be his deputy at the ministry? Šalitroš...
president.sk/ TASR/ gnews.cz - RoZ
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