BRATISLAVA — A small number of Slovak MPs approved a resolution obliging the government to oppose anti-Russian sanctions, which only passed because the opposition mistakenly failed to present themselves for the vote.
The motion was submitted on Thursday by the junior coalition partner, the hard-right party SNS. Its leader, Andrej Danko, called the resolution a “historic document” that instructs the government to vote against EU sanctions at the next opportunity.
He also admitted he had not expected the resolution to pass. “God works in mysterious ways,” he said.
Slovakia’s parliament has 150 seats, but the resolution was approved by only 51 MPs. At the time of the vote, only 76 members of PM Robert Fico’s government were present.
In an attempt to block the vote, the pro-European opposition hastily withdrew from the voting, meaning they were no longer counted as present.
After the tactic backfired, opposition parties SLOVENSKO and SaS pointed fingers at the leading liberal opposition party, Progressive Slovakia, which had instructed them to do it last-minute.
PS called it a technical mistake, saying they had assumed the coalition lacked enough MPs for a quorum. “If the strategy had been executed properly, parliament would have been inquorate,” said PS caucus leader Martin Dubéci.
SaS said they will do “everything possible” to submit a new resolution on the issue.
Despite its pro-Russian leaning, Fico’s government has so far supported every EU sanctions package against Russia.
Now, even coalition MPs cannot agree on how binding the parliamentary resolution is for the government. Constitutional lawyer Vincent Bujňák told Denník N that the resolution is neither a constitutional law nor a law, and therefore does not constitute a generally binding legal regulation.