BRATISLAVA, October 17, (WEBNOVINY) — Monday saw a failure of talks between President Ivan Gasparovic and leaders of parliamentary political parties, seeking a joint solution to the current situation, after the Cabinet of Iveta Radicova lost a parliamentary vote of confidence. The head of state said that they have not found an appropriate constitutional and legal solution, so he convened another meeting for Thursday evening. The meeting between President Gasparovic and leaders of parliamentary parties lasted one and a half hours.
Party chairmen were tight-lipped about the situation. “We will continue negotiating,” said SDKU-DS leader Mikulas Dzurinda. It is not clear yet what will be on the agenda of the ongoing session of parliament, which reconvenes on Tuesday. According to KDH head Jan Figel, the next item on the agenda will be discussed tomorrow.
Before the joint meeting with parliamentary parties’ leaders, the head of state first met with political leaders separately to comply with the request of some of them that the president talks to all leaders individually and reschedule the originally planned collective meeting from 11 a.m. until the afternoon.
The president and parliamentary parties differ on whether the Cabinet of Iveta Radicova should lead the country until early elections or a new cabinet that will have to win parliament’s endorsement or its program. SNS leader Jan Slota and SaS Chairman Richard Sulik agree that a new Cabinet will have to win confidence of lawmakers, according to one of the participants of the meeting. Some leaders said at the meeting that the current cabinet has to be recalled in order to honor the wording of the constitution. The program of the new cabinet for which it would have to earn parliament’s confidence within 30 days from its appointment does not have to be extensive: the reasoning of the 2012 budget draft and the declaration that the cabinet will lead the country to early elections would be enough.
SITA