Slovakian coalition may collapse

SLOVAKIA:Slovakia's coalition government could collapse today after prime minister Robert Fico asked the country's president to sack its farm minister over a property scandal, writes Daniel McLaughlin.

The Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS), which is led by firebrand former premier Vladimir Meciar, is holding an emergency meeting to decide whether to remain in the ruling alliance after Mr Fico requested the dismissal of Miroslav Jurena.

Mr Jurena is accused of having responsibility for an agency that sold property to a firm close to the HZDS for a fraction of its true market value. He denies the allegations. "The minister bears full political responsibility for scandalous land transfers," Mr Fico said after meeting President Ivan Gasparovic. "I care about this coalition, but not at any price."

Mr Gasparovic said he would fulfil Mr Fico's request to sack the farm minister, but said the move should not prompt the HZDS to withdraw from government, a move that would rob the coalition of its parliamentary majority and could lead to early elections.

"The government should continue in fulfilling the mandate given to it by voters," he said. "The dismissal of a minister does not mean expressing distrust in a political party."

Mr Meciar, whose authoritarian leadership made Slovakia a pariah in the mid-1990s, said he could withdraw from a government that has few friends in the EU due to his own dubious reputation and that of another member, the far-right Slovak National Party (SNS).

"I no longer think that this coalition is the only right coalition for Slovakia," Mr Meciar said yesterday. Opinion polls suggest Mr Fico's party could win a parliamentary majority with the SNS if snap elections were held now.