Slovak President Peter Pellegrini can declare a referendum with a clear conscience. But he must really want to. The non-parliamentary party Democrats stated this in response to the words of the head of state in the discussion program Sobotné dialogy, that the declaration of a referendum on shortening the current government’s term of office will still be assessed.
- President Peter Pellegrini is considering announcing a referendum on shortening the government term.
- The Democrats accuse the president of looking for excuses for not announcing the referendum.
- Democrats suggest that Pellegrini is hesitant because of his proximity to the governing coalition.
- Pellegrini recalls the decision of the Constitutional Court that the election period cannot be shortened by referendum.
- Democrats submitted over 384,000 signatures for a referendum with three specific demands.
“On the one hand, Mr. President says that he is a supporter of the referendum and that he would ‘want’ it, but on the other hand, he is in the same breath looking for excuses and culprits, on whom he could make excuses and on whom to transfer responsibility for not announcing the referendum.” Demokrati property.
In the statement, they also indicate that the president’s hesitation has to do with his inclination towards the current coalition. According to the Democrats, the current wording of the constitution allows the president to declare a referendum on all three questions.
The President in the Saturday Dialogues show recalled the situation when his predecessor Zuzana Čaputová appealed to the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic and the court said that a referendum cannot shorten the election period of any government. He claims that the future of such a referendum may have been decided by the Democrats, because during the government of their representative and then Prime Minister Eduard Heger, a proposal to amend the constitution was made to shorten the election period through a referendum, but the coalition MPs at the time did not support it. “The president, by turning to the Constitutional Court and the decision of the Constitutional Court, and at the same time the Democrats, who did not support the amendment of the constitution so that there could be a referendum in the constitution, almost as if they also decided on their own referendum,” Pellegrini said about the submitted petition
On Monday (March 23), the Democrats handed over the collected over 384,000 signatures to declare a referendum on shortening the current government’s term of office. The aim of the referendum is the early termination of the current government’s election period, the restoration of the Office of the Special Prosecutor and the National Criminal Agency, as well as the cancellation of Fico’s life annuity.
