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Paska: Parliament Brings Changes to People's Lives
Saturday 26 December 2009 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, December 26 (TASR) - The Slovak Parliament was a dignified expression of the citizen's will in 2009, it functioned in a standard manner on the basis of democratic principles, and it brought changes to the quality of people's lives, Parliamentary Chairman Pavol Paska has told TASR.
This is corroborated by the fact that the trust of the public in the Parliament has doubled, he added. "The quality of functioning of a legislature is not as depicted in a simplistic manner by the media, it's not based on whether an MP is sitting in the assembly or not. It's an issue of how an MP influences the quality of people's lives, and it's the law that is the fundamental democratic tool in the entire democratic world that serves this purpose," said Paska.
The extent of legislative changes, primarily in the area of social affairs, was so substantial that it paved way for people's increased trust in the House. "Obviously, it's also about the internal situation in the Parliament. Parties that made the current governing coalition offered a comparatively intelligible programme for people," he added.
Asked why Coalition MPs almost always reject initiatives brought forth by the Opposition, Paska said that the Opposition doesn't participate in power. Standard democratic systems are based on the fact that the Coalition receives a political mandate and above all responsibility. In turn, the respected Opposition is chiefly endowed with the task to check the Coalition's policies.
"Excuse me, a person (Mikulas Dzurinda) who carried out a harsh, neo-liberal concept of economy without any social dimension for eight years while in power, appears all of a sudden and submits bills that make you grin," said Paska.
Opposition SDKU-DS leader and former two-time premier Dzurinda said recently that the scope for parliamentary discussion is currently the most limited since 1991. Paska rejected such allegations.
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