Slovakia’s Parliament announced Tuesday that early elections will be called for September 30 following an agreement between the three government parties and the Liberals, the main opposition force.
The rest of the opposition parties had demanded to set the elections for an earlier date, as these elections will finally be held just five months before the regular date, scheduled for February 2024.
The current government, led by the conservative Eduard Heger, lost a no-confidence motion in December and has been in office on an interim basis since then. The opposition considers that the political stalemate is prolonged while the country is immersed in a serious crisis.
Both the governing parties and the liberals themselves have tried to delay the elections as long as possible, probably because of the drastic loss of votes predicted by the polls. The Social Democrats, who governed until 2020 and are now leading again in all the polls, have been accused by the government parties of being a «mafia».
The possibility of an early election has only been feasible once a constitutional amendment was given the ‘green light’ last week, shortening the term of office of parliamentarians and bringing forward the holding of elections.
Until now, the Slovak constitution did not provide for such a mechanism despite the fact that early elections have been held in the past. However, such early elections have been strongly criticized and have finally led the deputies to seek an agreement on such a reform.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
