The three remaining members of the Obycajni Ludia (OL) faction within the SaS party are expected to make an announcement today about their future in the party, or their departure from it to join OL colleague and leader Igor Matovic, who was expelled from the party last week for voting with the opposition.
As the three MPs in question have been reserved about their plans, there is a strong possibility that they will take the decision to become independent MPs, taking the total number in parliament to six. This would all be fine if it were not for the fact that the move would mean the government has a minority in parliament and so could be held to ransom by the OL MPs over anything they take a fancy to.
Head of the SaS party and parliamentary chairman, Richard Sulik, is playing down the situation by saying it would be no big deal if the remaining three OL members were to leave. His statement is based on the fact that they all agreed to continue supporting the coalition, but at what cost or compromise?
Today’s SaS caucus meeting will take place at the request of the three OL MPs, Jozef Viskupic, Martin Fecko and Erika Jurinova, who will act as one. If they leave, the SaS party will probably be slightly relieved that the troublesome group is no longer its jurisdiction, but the government coalition will be left with just 74 MPs in the 150-member parliament.
Party chairman Sulik said he would fight for them to stay in his party, though, while his colleague, economy minister Juraj Miskov, is convinced that they will not leave the SaS.
The ejected Igor Matovic has been at the centre of trouble since he got into parliament, and it seems that this is how he likes it. There is already talk of early elections, because some believe that Matovic has now put himself in a strong enough position of power in the hung parliament to bring about the downfall of the governing coalition or make it dysfunctional.
Some say they knew it would happen because there is a different between ‘politicians’ and ‘ordinary people’ (the meaning of Obycajni ludia), who probably don’t belong in parliament after all, because different rules apply there. Mutual backstabbing is acceptable, as long as both sides scratch them afterwards.