The flurry of activity has begun surrounding Slovakia’s position to the European Financial Stability Facility and the second bailout for Greece, after the SaS party rejected outright its support under the current conditions.
Prime Minister Iveta Radicova has already called on the opposition parties Smer-SD and SNS for talks on the matter, hoping to gain their support to push the corresponding bill through parliament. It all looks set to become a political playground again, where something for something will be bargained.
Head of main opposition party Smer-SD, Robert Fico, has reiterated several times that he would only support the government in relation to the EFSF and ESM if they were united, but with the SaS playing hardball, that is now unlikely. Fico could find himself being pressurised by the Party of European Socialists, though, as they want the EFSF to be pushed through.
Head of the SaS party, Richard Sulik, is strongly against allowing the purchase of bonds of troubled states and other changes made to the EFSF, and some analysts agree that it could be the road to ruin for the eurozone. Sulik has already met with President Ivan Gasparovic, who called him to get his side of the story.
The other opposition party, nationalist SNS, has accepted an invitation of the PM to a debate on eurozone issues next week, with vice-chairman Andrej Danko saying they would come despite their objections to Radicova, and hinting it how she suddenly needed their support.
There were also speculations that PM Radicova could link the vote on the EFSF to a vote of confidence in the government or herself, as leverage on the defiant SaS party. This idea was thought up by KDH MP Anton Marcincin, though, who also said being in a coalition with the SaS was pointless if it didn’t back the bill.