Fico ready to fill environment post with SNS as Kuffa remains sole candidate

SNS leader Andrej Danko said after talks with Prime Minister Robert Fico and the coalition council that Filip Kuffa remained the candidate for Slovakia’s environment minister. Kuffa confirmed he was SNS’s only candidate, and Fico said he was ready to complete staffing of the post with the party.¹

Taraba removed after no-confidence vote

Parliament removed Taraba from the posts of deputy prime minister and environment minister on Sep 29. According to TASR, all 77 lawmakers present supported the motion, while 73 were absent. The debate lasted slightly more than an hour, and the opposition and almost all members of the SNS parliamentary group backed moving the proposal ahead of other business.¹

Pellegrini formally dismissed Taraba on Sep 30 and temporarily entrusted Fico with the ministry. The president’s office said Pellegrini had not received a proposal for a new minister by that point. Taraba then returned to parliament as an unaffiliated elected deputy, ending Milan Garaj’s substitute mandate, according to TV JOJ.⁵⁶

The departure followed a prolonged dispute inside the governing arrangement. TASR reported that Taraba, Fico and SNS leader Andrej Danko had agreed in May that Taraba would leave by the end of September unless the minister and SNS reconciled. Taraba nevertheless repeatedly said he did not intend to end his tenure and maintained that Danko had been informed about the ministry’s management.¹

SNS stands behind Kuffa

SNS nominated Kuffa, a state secretary at the ministry, and continued to insist on him after Taraba’s removal. STVR reported that the opposition criticised the choice. SNS says Kuffa has the education needed to manage the ministry, according to Denník N, while Kuffa expects Fico to propose him to Pellegrini.¹²³

After meeting Fico and the coalition council, Danko said Kuffa remained the candidate and that he would hold further talks with him about the appointment. Fico said he was ready to complete staffing of the post with SNS, while Kuffa confirmed that he was the party’s only candidate. Danko said the minister’s name should be finalized on Tuesday or Wednesday, although no formal nomination or appointment had been confirmed.¹⁴⁵

Pellegrini had already raised concerns about the standard of any replacement. In August, he said a successor would have to represent a higher-quality nomination and that Slovakia had people better qualified than Kuffa, according to TASR.¹

Government stability and ministry control

Fico said the sequence initiated by SNS’s demand and the positions taken by its representatives posed a serious risk to the parliamentary majority and the proper operation of the government. SNS said it could no longer assume political responsibility for several projects and matters under Taraba’s authority, while Danko claimed that substantive talks with the minister about important ministry documents had long been absent.¹

After taking temporary control, Fico visited the ministry and met its three state secretaries on Oct 1. TV JOJ reported that he confirmed the ministry would remain under SNS political oversight and that he did not want to manage it personally for long. Danko later said personnel changes were planned from Monday, including at the level of the ministry’s general secretary of the service office, with other changes also scheduled.¹⁵

SNS lawmaker Roman Michelko said rejecting Kuffa would require ending and rewriting the governing coalition agreement. That position underscores the political stakes of the appointment, although the formal decision remained pending in the latest reports.³⁵