The people cannot directly shorten the election period by voting in a referendum, this was prevented by the politicians of the former government coalition, who in the spring of 2023 deleted such an option from the draft amendment to the constitution. Publicist Juraj Hrabko said this on TASR TV.
The non-parliamentary party Democrats announces the collection of signatures for a petition for a referendum on early elections, but according to Hrabek, such a petition is useless in today’s legal situation. According to him, in itself it is probably in conflict with the constitution, but it would certainly not be possible to hold a successful referendum on early elections on its basis. “Such a referendum would be useless, because the Constitutional Court would decide that it is not valid,” stated Hrabko.
According to him, in the last election period, the Constitutional Court (ÚS) of the Slovak Republic, in response to the initiative of ex-president Zuzana Čaputová, stated that the shortening of the electoral period would only be possible in Slovakia on the basis of an amendment to the constitution, since its wording at the time did not allow for this either in the form of a referendum or by voting in parliament.
In January 2023, the Parliament actually amended the constitution so that the election period can be shortened with the votes of at least 90 deputies. However, the deputies did not approve the possibility of a referendum on early elections, based on the proposal of Mária Kolíková (SaS), it was deleted from the constitutional amendment. “The fact that people do not have the opportunity to call a referendum on early elections is not thanks to Smer or SNS, they can thank the previous government coalition for that,” stated Hrabko.
According to Hrabek, the approval of the consolidation package will not quell the disputes in the government coalition, he expects them to continue until the state budget law is approved. “The state budget is an important document for the entire next year,” he stated.
On the other hand, according to Hrabek, the support of all 79 MPs for the consolidation package shows that the coalition is still united in fundamental matters. “This shows the unity of the coalition, that even if they have a problem on the outside, when necessary, they all work together,” he noted. However, according to him, the very content of the package shows that the main burden of consolidation will be borne by the people. “The Budget Board said it could be done better. It will have an impact on people’s wallets, but also on the competitiveness of the country,” said Hrabko.
Source: spravy.pravda.sk
