Slovak PM Fico proposes minister change to win back parliamentary majority

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(Reuters) – Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico was set to reclaim a slim parliamentary majority for the government on Thursday after submitting to the president a proposed cabinet change and declaration of support from four unaligned lawmakers.

Fico’s leftist-nationalist ruling coalition has bickered in recent months amid party disputes and defections of lawmakers that cost the government a clear majority in the 150-seat parliament.

Government parties won 79 of 150 seats in the 2023 elections.

Late last year, though, three lawmakers quit the nationalist party SNS, a junior member of the coalition. Centrist party HLAS also had four dissenters, of which it expelled two last month and one joined the other rebel group’s faction.

Fico, a four-time prime minister, said in a statement on Thursday he had submitted the cabinet change proposal and support declaration and planned a second change and statement of support shortly, without giving further details.

The president’s office said the statement of support submitted on Thursday guaranteed the government 76 seats, giving it a narrow majority. The proposed change would hand the Sport and Tourism Ministry to a former SNS lawmaker, the office said.

Fico’s ruling SMER-SSD party this month took control of two ministries as part of efforts to stabilise the coalition.

The government rumblings come against a backdrop of public protests over a foreign policy shift that critics say takes the country too close to Russia. Protesters have called for Fico’s resignation.

Fico has defended his government’s foreign policy, saying it was aimed in all directions and was determined by Slovakia’s European Union and NATO membership.

He has also accused activists and the pro-Western opposition of aiming to whip up protests and occupy state buildings to paralyse the government, which they deny.

(Reporting by Jason Hovet in Prague; Editing by Rod Nickel)