“Why should I, as the leader of a stable coalition party, pay the price for the coalition’s inability to enforce laws in parliament?” he added.
Fico said that an alternative to the snap elections would be a reshuffle of the number of MPs set by the coalition agreement, a scenario neither of the two coalition partners are fond of.
The coalition crisis was sparked by the departure of three SNS MPs who rebelled and quit their caucus in October over internal disputes — and continue to withhold support for the coalition until it meets their demands.
As a result, Fico’s government has been working with a razor-thin majority of 76 out of 150 and faced trouble passing laws through the chamber. Fico conceded in November that snap elections may be inevitable.
The crisis has also highlighted the tense relations between Fico and Slovakia’s President Peter Pellegrini, an increasingly vocal critic of the PM.
Four other MPs from the Hlas party began to rebel against certain proposals in December over, among other matters, the government’s ties with Russia. Over Christmas, Fico paid a surprise visit to Moscow where he met Russian President Vladimir Putin.