Slovak opposition leader loses deputy parliament speaker role

The ruling coalition removed Michal Šimečka (PS/RE) from his position as deputy speaker of parliament in a vote on Monday, with 76 MPs voting in favour of his removal in a secret ballot - the narrowest possible majority, as even three coalition members did not vote in favour of his dismissal.

The motion to remove Šimečka from his position was approved by lawmakers on Tuesday after it was initiated by a group of ruling coalition MPs led by deputy speaker Tibor Gašpar (Smer-SD/NI).

“Mr. Fico, you can fire the deputy speaker of the parliament, but you cannot fire the leader of the opposition. I look forward to defeating you in the election. Now I have a few more hours a day to do it,” Šimečka responded.

Along with various other accusations, government MPs accused him of being indirectly involved in the attempted assassination of Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD/NI) and of his family members receiving state subsidies for their NGOs.

Šimečka, who has also served as vice-president of the European Parliament, denied all accusations and described the situation as a "farce".

Prime Minister Fico thanked the deputies for sacking Šimečka and called the PS party “spongers”. But even some members of the ruling coalition refused to vote for Šimečka's dismissal, including Roman Malatinec of the Hlas-SD party (NI).

“Hlas should focus on its own policies and not get drawn into this fight. There are more important issues, such as the struggling local government, the dysfunctional fund for supporting the arts, and others,”  Malatinec told Slovak outlet SME.

Reasons for Šimečka’s removal 

According to the motion’s supporters, Šimečka organised opposition protests because he feared it would be revealed that foundations and organisations linked to his family were receiving state grants.

"You abused the political and civil right to assembly to cover up serious accusations," said Gašpar. However, all three organisations in question have also received state support during previous Smer governments (2012 – 2022) without any objections being raised.

In response, the Progressive Slovakia (PS) party presented a list of hundreds of politicians from the ruling coalition whose organisations and families have also received state subsidies in recent years.

Gašpar also went on to claim that there are “serious suspicions of illegal actions and manipulation in the process of allocating state grants” to these organisations, referring to an unfinished audit by the Justice Ministry, which makes no such claims.

In fact, the audit report states that there was no evidence of favouring any applicant “in any way”.

The coalition links Šimečka to Denník N because his father, former dissident Milan M. Šimečka, works there. For years, however, Milan Šimečka has deliberately refrained from commenting on PS policy. He owns less than 0.5% of the paper, as do more than 70 other editors.

Fico's government refuses to cooperate with several mainstream media. It often attacks them, calling them "enemy", "anti-government", or "anti-Slovak", and instead supports media known for spreading disinformation.

(Natália Silenská | Euractiv.sk)