PM Radicova may resign over Attorney General vote

Concerning the ongoing controversy surrounding the vote on the Attorney General (AG), Prime Minister Iveta Radicova said that the coalition would respect the recent judgement of the Constitutional Court to repeat the blind ballot vote.

She made the statement after a coalition meeting on Monday after speculations that the four coalition parties would once again try to thwart the secret vote in some way. Now the parliamentary vote on who should occupy the strategic post of Attorney General will take place at the session on 17 May.

The PM assured the media that no MP would be advised on how to vote or given instructions on how to proceed, and that the secret vote would go ahead as it should. The coalition is still backing the common candidate of Jozef Centes, while the opposition plans to stand behind former AG Dobroslav Trnka.

If Trnka is voted back into office, Prime Minister Radicova said she would stand down as PM, just as she declared also before previous voting.

Opposition party Smer-SD doesn’t trust the coalition to stick to its word, though, and party vice-chairman Robert Kalinak says the unsuccessful candidate could turn repeatedly to the Constitutional Court until the coalition finally respects the Constitution.

Kalinak believes the coalition MPs could maybe collect their ballot papers and not cast them, just as they did before, as this could block the vote. He also accuses the coalition of possibly planning to get MPs to disclose their votes out of sight of the media before casting them.

Prime Minister Iveta Radicova seems to like putting her head on the chopping block, and so will rest it there once again on 17 May. If coalition MPs really do respect the blind ballot fully, then only a few ‘mutiny’ votes would be required to oust her from her position as head of the government. This seems too fragile a position to be in, especially considering potential deals and blackmail that might be going on behind the scenes.