Slovakia: Vote postponed for the fate of Heger's government gives negotiations opportunity

Slovakia's Parliament decided today to postpone Prime Minister Edward Heger's vote of no confidence in the minority government by Thursday, giving more time to negotiations and debate on possible options, including early elections.

Opposition parties accuse Prime Minister Heger's government that it has not done enough to help citizens cope with rising energy prices and the debate over their no-confidence motion, which began last week, was supposed to end today.

The government, which has been in power since 2020, lost its majority in September when a junior coalition partner, the SAS party, left the coalition after clashes with the main ruling party, ordinary people (OLANO), mainly for handling the energy crisis.

The parties can seek early elections, and for that they must secure 90 votes in the 150-seat parliament.

The demand for distrust filed by the Saz and Hlas parties of former Prime Minister Peter Pellegrin could pass to the parliament, where the opposition has about 70 votes.

It needs another six independent votes to succeed, and today one of the independent MPs announced it aims to back the motion for a vote of no confidence in the government.