UPDATE 1-Slovak president to meet party heads over interim govt
BRATISLAVA Oct 14 (Reuters) - Slovak President Ivan
Gasparovic said on Friday he would formally dismiss the fallen
government of Prime Minister Iveta Radicova and meet the heads
of political parties on Monday to discuss the shape of an
interim cabinet.Gasparovic met earlier with Radicova, whose government
collapsed on Tuesday after failing to ratify a deal boosting the
euro zone’s rescue fund in a parliamentary vote that was tied to
a confidence motion.The ruling coalition later passed the measure ratifying an
expansion of the European Financial Stability Facility in
another vote on Thursday after securing support from the
opposition by agreeing to hold an early election in March.Radicova’s cabinet will remain in office until a new
administration is formed. Coalition officials have not given
details on how it will operate and it is possible that it will
work only in a caretaker capacity.”I will dismiss the government and will have to name a new
government,” Gasparovic told journalists. “Therefore I have
decided that, Monday morning, I will summon the heads of the
parliamentary parties so we can decide on the next steps.”Gasparovic did not say exactly when he would dismiss the
government but said he had also met with opposition leader
Robert Fico, head of the leftist Smer party.Fico has said he will stay in opposition until the election
slated for March 10, which cuts the original term of the current
Slovak parliament in half.Slovakia’s most popular party by far with more than 40
percent support and 62 of the chamber’s 150 seats, Smer
supported the EFSF but held back its vote in the first ballot
because to trigger the government collapse.The most likely scenario now is probably a minority
government including Radicova’s SDKU party, the Christian
Democrats, and the centrist Most-Hid.They may find support from Smer, but their former fourth
coalition partner, the SaS party of free-marketeer Richard
Sulik, told a Czech newspaper on Friday that he would not
support them in a new administration.”Our ministers will undoubtedly be replaced. They will be
recalled. The government of three rightist parties will not have
the support of SaS,” Sulik said in an interview in Czech
newspaper Hospodarske Noviny.There is no time limit on when a new cabinet must be
appointed. If Gasparovic does not appoint one, Radicova’s
administration could technically stay on as a
government-in-demise in the five months until the election.
Radicova has not said whether she wants to stay in her post.
