The attempt yesterday by former PM and opposition party Smer-SD head Robert Fico to dethrone Prime Minister Iveta Radicova in a no-confidence vote failed.
The opposition parties Smer-SD and nationalist party SNS only managed to rally 69 votes of the 76 needed for a simple majority of the 147 MPs in attendance, meaning PM Radicova received the full support of her coalition.
In the debate preceding the vote in the special no-confidence session, Robert Fico said Radicova was not fit to head the government, claiming she goes back on her promises and is suspect to corruption. Fico laboured on for forty minutes, blaming Radicova also for price hikes, slowed economic growth and rising unemployment, saying her principle was that the people had to pay for everything even though it was not their fault.
In response to the corruption accusations, Radicova retorted that she “had nothing to do with corruption, and will not”. Transport minister Jan Figel rejected the arguments used by the opposition for a no-confidence motion as misleading, while not forgetting to blame also the previous government for the current economic situation.
One MP from coalition party KDH, Peter Muransky, said openly that foreign minister Mikulas Dzurinda should replace Radicova as PM, as he had proven himself well in his two previous terms in office as Prime Minister between 1998 and 2006.
PM Radicova is under pressure from all angles, with the coalition crumbling over the EFSF and ESM mechanisms, for instance, cases of crony practices taking place under her nose and the zealous attacks from the opposition, so she might just welcome the idea of standing down in the end.