The coalition partners of the Direction-SD, especially the CIS, were driven into the corner and is a great political loss on their part. For TASR, this was stated by political scientist Aneta Világi in response to the agreement of the government parties to amend the coalition treaty. He perceives this as the last attempt of the current coalition to stabilize his stay in power.
She assessed that the outcome of the change is fully in the responsibility of the chairman of the CIS Andrej Danko, who, in her opinion, did not manage one of the most important tasks that politicians are supposed to conduct political negotiations. “This not only towards his own parliamentary club, but also with coalition partners to enforce the interests of the parts of his deputies, which eventually proved to be crucial for the stability of the government coalition,“explained.
As she pointed out, the confidence of the voters in the promised peace and political stability has been and is still disrupted. From this point of view, the government coalition as a whole suffered a minimal reputation loss, which, according to a political scientist, naturally benefits the opposition at least by gaining political ammunition into verbal fights.
Világi mentioned that Smer-SD was nominally strengthened from the crisis and a serious loss suffered a CIS, partly also voice-SD. “However, as these profits and losses will be politically capitalized, it depends to a large extent on the ability to ensure stable majority support in parliament and the government will still have to pass through this test,” she added.
According to the political scientist, the indications suggest that there is the will of the deputies of the National Council of the Slovak Republic who left the CIS and voice-SD, to agree, which is, in view of the fear of early elections and especially their uncertain political future understandable. So, most of them will have no problem working with the government coalition.
She noted that this could be problematic for two deputies from the voice-SD voice, who also mentioned the problems of party identity among the reservations of the functioning of the voice-SD when they blamed the voice-SD insufficient definition of Direction-SD. Currently, however, they are politically dependent on the Prime Minister and Direction-SD, so he perceives at least as a problem they will have to manage communication.
Smaller coalition partners have lost benefits
The Prime Minister “solved” the coalition crisis clearly power, in favor of his Smer-SD party, which is also the largest in the coalition. Political scientist Darina Malová evaluated it for TASR. According to her, this means the end of his generous approach to smaller coalition partners.
“Smer-SD scored clear profits and two smaller coalition partners have lost the benefits they negotiated shortly after the elections. But much depends on who will lead two ministries,” the political scientist said. As she pointed out, negotiations in politics are always complicated and negotiating with politicians whose interests are not transparent will arouse public doubts. “However, they definitely know that they will pull the shorter end when negotiating with the Prime Minister“Malová added.
The government parties Smer-SD, Voice-SD and CIS agreed on Wednesday (February 19) to change the coalition treaty. The situation of the distribution of members of the government has changed. The Direction-SD will also include the Investment, Regional Development and Computerization Department as well as the Ministry of Tourism and Sport. Smer-SD wants to use this political influence to stabilize the government coalition and the re-acquisition of the majority in Parliament.
