Slovak opposition seeks unity and plans further ministerial dismissals

Slovakia’s opposition sought to narrow its internal divisions on 4 October, with SaS chairman Branislav Gröhling calling for agreement on measures that could be used after a possible transfer of power, while SaS lawmaker Juraj Krúpa said opposition parties would continue seeking the dismissal of government ministers.¹²³

An attempt to ease opposition disputes

Gröhling said the current opposition parties should identify policies they could jointly present to voters and later implement if they entered government. He said he could act as a mediator among the parties and argued that cooperation would not require them to eliminate all their political differences.¹²⁵

The SaS leader has begun communicating with Igor Matovič, chairman of Hnutie Slovensko, and proposed a face-to-face meeting. Gröhling said that, apart from routine exchanges in parliament, he and Matovič had not spoken substantially for about two years. He also said Hnutie Slovensko had sometimes discussed other opposition parties in an unusual or vulgar manner.¹²⁵

Gröhling proposed bringing the entire parliamentary opposition together in Bratislava for events on 17 November. SaS will accept Hnutie Slovensko’s invitation to participate in protests that day, although Gröhling said the party might not have enough lawmakers to cover every protest location.¹²⁵

Gröhling nevertheless drew a boundary around the proposed cooperation, saying the extra-parliamentary Maďarská koalícia was not aligned with the broader opposition grouping. He also maintained that decisions about a party’s leadership belonged to that party and its voters.¹²⁵

SaS prepares its programme and candidates

SaS said its parliamentary group could grow and that it was discussing pre-election cooperation with smaller parties. Gröhling indicated that such arrangements were more likely to involve figures from those parties joining the SaS candidate list than a different form of alliance. Eva Polerecká and Štefan Hamran were named as possible candidates in a parliamentary election.¹²

The party’s programme contains 18 chapters and 400 measures and is due to be published online. Its proposals include abolishing some ministries as part of a reduction in the size of the state and targeting thirteenth-pension payments rather than distributing them without such criteria.¹²

Pressure on the governing coalition

Krúpa, a member of the National Council’s defence and security committee, said the opposition intended to continue efforts to dismiss ministers. The statement followed the removal of Environment Minister Tomáš Taraba, which Gröhling described as evidence that Prime Minister Robert Fico’s government had lost stability.¹²³

Gröhling said Andrej Danko had removed Taraba and that SaS had participated in the process. He also claimed that nobody had pressured SaS lawmakers during the dismissal; that assertion has not been independently confirmed in the dossier. SaS does not plan to negotiate with Taraba, although it intends to watch whether he supports the opposition proposal to abolish the transaction tax.¹²

Gröhling argued that the government would now have to consult unaffiliated lawmakers on every important bill. Krúpa said Fico would have to make further concessions and that an early election remained possible.¹²⁴

Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Robert Kaliňák offered a different assessment. According to STVR, he said the coalition would complete its term properly. Denník N reported that Kaliňák described Smer-SD as a stabilising force in the coalition and said Fico had handled the Taraba case ideally.³⁴

The political manoeuvring comes before Slovakia’s municipal and regional elections, scheduled for 24 October 2026.³