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Opposition Calls for Extraordinary Session on Loan for Greece
Wednesday 05 May 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, May 5 (TASR) - An extraordinary parliamentary session featuring a debate on whether Slovakia should provide a loan to Greece will take place within seven days, even though Prime Minister Robert Fico has been against it.
Opposition MPs Stanislav Janis (SDKU-DS) and Gyula Bardos (ethnic-Hungarian SMK) submitted 33 MPs' signatures to Parliament office on Wednesday, which oblige Parliamentary Chairman Pavol Paska (Smer-SD) to summon a session. The proposal was also approved by the Christian Democrats (KDH).
The debate should focus on a mandate for the Government and Prime Minister Robert Fico to discuss the financial assistance for Greece at the EU-level, which is required by Constitutional law, SDKU claims. "The only (body) that can give a mandate to the Government for the discussion in Brussels is Parliament," Janis said at a press briefing.
"We've been expecting that the Government would summon a parliamentary session (itself) ... We've taken this step because it didn't happen," said SDKU-DS election leader Iveta Radicova.
According to Radicova, the Slovak people shouldn't collect money in order for profits of banks to profit ... banks that behaved irresponsibly in the past by lending money to Greece and are now shrugging off any responsibility for the situation. "It's a paradox that most of this money won't be transferred to Greece, but to the banking sector. That's the whole irony of the story about lending money to Greece. Thus, we're insisting on measures that would put an end to this way of financing countries or the eurozone as a whole," she added.
The Slovak National Party (SNS) also presented its interest in discussing the issue in Parliament, as it does not support the loan.
Coalition LS-HZDS rejects such a session a few weeks before the general election, as does the strongest coalition party Smer-SD, which foresees the Opposition extracting political capital out of the exercise.
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