Slovak parliament today gave the thumbs up to increasing the capacity of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) following agreement with Robert Fico’s opposition party Smer-SD in return for early elections in March 2012.
It was a foregone conclusion with 114 of 147 present MPs voting in favour of upping the eurozone bailout fund, with just 30 votes against and 3 abstainers.
This simple motion, which caused slight turbulence on the markets this week, will see many across Europe give a sigh of relief, while others will start to question and examine the approach taken by the SaS party to reject the revamp of the EFSF.
It will be interesting to watch whether the EFSF will respond to the negative economic development of other countries such as Italy because one of the main reasons why the Freedom and Solidarity party didn’t want to support it was the economic situation in those countries whose default could hardly be prevented by any rescue packages.
The SaS is the only decent party left in the Eurozone. But be proud of your thumbs up, you will pay for it.