The Parliament met today to vote about the new Slovak President. It was the second scrutiny of the third round, so entirely the sixth attempt to choose the new inhabitant of the Presidential Palace, which is already 59 days without its President. There were two best candidates from the first scrutiny - Milan Secansky (proposed by HZDS) and Brigita Schmognerova (proposed by the Party of the Democratic Left - SDL), who got the most votes in that first scrutiny. Nevertheless, 90 votes are needed, and even Milan Secansky, the candidate of the coalition which has more than a half of the deputies, couldn't be elected for the President.
In today's election, there were 134 valid vote tickets (there are 150 deputies), Milan Secansky (HZDS) got 72 votes for, 45 votes against and 11 deputies refrained. Brigita Schmognerova (SDL) got 47 votes for, 77 votes against and 4 deputies refrained. So Slovakia is again without its President. The first scrutiny of the fourth round is announced for the Friday, 29th May.
The former vice-chair of HZDS Arpad Matejka informed, that the representatives of HZDS thought of proposing Milan Secansky and Augustin Marian Huska (the vice-chair of the Parliament and HZDS) as the candidates in the presidential elections, so it's possible that A.M.Huska would be proposed in the fourth round.
According to the leader of the Slovak National Party Jan Slota, his party will probably have its candidates soon. It should be Jozef Prokes and the Defense Minister Jan Sitek.
When leaving the Parliament, Brigita Schmognerova discovered that someone injured the tires of her car...
According to the chairman of the deputies faction of HZDS Tibor Cabaj, the new law on direct presidential election is currently "under construction" and will be proposed by the beginning of July.
Since a few years ago, there are 79 districts in Slovakia. Eight regions, and seventy-nine districts. And there are also 79 district offices, which are established by the government, so they are not the so-called "local government" (which are elected by the citizens). And according to the deputy of the Christian-Democratic Movement (KDH) Pavol Hrusovsky, all the 79 chairmen of these offices are the members (and some of them even quite top-members) of HZDS (Movement for Democratic Slovakia), which is currently the strongest governmental party.
Pavol Hrusovsky mentioned, that "HZDS did not only privatize the enterprises, but also the state administration." It's also serious regarding to the upcoming parliamentarian elections.
In the beginning of this week, the Foreign Minister Zdenka Kramplova participated at the Association Council of the European Union in Luxembourg. It was said she asked the members of the council to move Slovakia from the second to the first group of the countries - candidates for European integration. On today's press-conference of the Foreign Ministry, it was said, that she couldn't ask them to move the candidate, because this council cannot do such steps. The Minister argued, that Slovakia would be able to respect all the political requests by the end of this year.
Mikulas Dzurinda, the leader of the Slovak Democratic Coalition said (SDK): "We have the only right - to win the elections in Slovakia" on the official opening of the regional SDK headquarters in Kosice. He also criticized the governmental coalition, also because "it has no interest to elect a new President."
The Governor of the National Bank Vladimir Masar was not satisfied with the progress in the issue of the Investment and Development Bank (IRB), who recently decided to increase its property by 2 billion SKK. Nevertheless, according to the governor, it's still better than to close this bank.
According to the leader of the Christian-Democratic Movement Jan Carnogursky, there are secret materials, that prove that the aircraft-repair company in Trencin repairs also some Libyan airplanes. Libya is currently under an embargo of UN.
The Slovakia's Ambassador to Hungary Eva Mitrova already left her post in Budapest. She was the very first Slovakia's Ambassador and was one of those 28, who were recalled by the government on 03 March, when the government took certain competencies of the leaving President. The following Ambassador should be the current deputy for HZDS Arpad Tarnoczy. He still did not receive the necessary "agreement" from Hungary and therefore cannot go to Budapest.
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