Slovak Parliament Removes Environment Minister Taraba

The Slovak National Council voted 77 to remove Environment Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Tomáš Taraba from office on Tuesday evening in Bratislava, a move that left Prime Minister Robert Fico's coalition government without a stable parliamentary majority.¹²³⁴

The vote

Taraba, a nominee of the coalition party SNS, was dismissed after a junior coalition party voted with the opposition, according to Reuters. The three-party government had controlled 78 of the 150 seats in parliament before the vote, and the motion against Taraba won 77 votes, according to Reuters.⁴

According to TASR and Hospodárske noviny, opposition parties said they had no choice but to support the removal. SaS chairman Branislav Gröhling declared that the coalition had lost its majority, saying, "Koaličná zmluva je v tejto chvíli len zdrap papiera," and adding that a prime minister without a majority should resign.¹³

KDH chairman Milan Majerský said Taraba should have stepped down voluntarily for the sake of the country, stating, "Ak by bol elegant, tak sa pre dobu krajiny vzdá." Sources noted this was the first time in 33 years that a minister had been removed from office in this way, the previous case being Viliam Soboňa.¹²³

Opposition reaction

Progressive Slovakia leader Michal Šimečka called for early elections as the only solution and urged Fico to resign, saying, "Vyzývame predsedu vlády, aby to proste zložil a uznal realitu," and describing the vote as a blow that should be final for the government.¹²

Za ľudí leader Veronika Remišová said the government was disintegrating in public view, stating, "Ficova vláda sa rozkladá priamo pred očami verejnosti," and called for its immediate departure. Progresívne Slovensko called on Fico to resign and dissolve the government, according to Hospodárske noviny.²³

Hnutie Slovensko leader Igor Matovič said Fico had been humiliated but predicted he would not give up power easily, saying, "Fico sa len tak ľahko nevzdá moci. predicting that Fico would instead treat the outcome as a new political reality and simply reshuffle his allies to fit it.¹²³

Coalition response

Coalition party Hlas-SD warned that the coalition had taken a dangerous path and called for talks to resolve the dispute, stating, "Hlas znova pripomína, že jedinou možnou cestou na urovnanie vzťahov vo vládnej koalícii je bezodkladné hľadanie riešenia za rokovacím stolom." According to Pravda, Hlas-SD also said the opposition had gained real power through Taraba's removal.²

Smer-SD, Fico's party, called a leadership meeting to decide its response. According to Reuters, Fico said he would gather Smer-SD's leadership to discuss next steps and raised the possibility of an early election in January, though this would require supermajority approval in parliament.²⁴

Two days before the vote, Fico had warned that a personnel decision by SNS would cost the coalition its majority, saying, "This personnel decision by the SNS will result in the loss of a parliamentary majority," according to Mezha.net. The same outlet reported that Taraba had earlier warned he might set up a separate bloc of deputies drawn from other government parties if he were ousted from the cabinet.⁵

What happens next

According to TASR, parliament was set to continue discussing the Vision 2040 program and would not vote on other pending items, including a radicalization law that would regulate social media use for children under 16, under a prior procedural agreement. Two government law proposals remained scheduled for Wednesday.¹

Opinion polls suggested the ruling parties could lose power in an election, according to Reuters, while Hnutie Slovensko's Matovič said he did not expect early elections, according to Pravda. Reuters also noted that Slovakia maintains warm relations with Russia and imports Russian oil and gas.²⁴