Slovak prime minister says 2023 state budget will be approved in time

(Reuters) – The Slovak parliament will approve the 2023 state budget this week, enabling the government to help people hit by soaring energy prices, Prime Minister Eduard Heger said on Tuesday.

Approving the budget in time appeared unlikely after Heger’s minority centre-right government lost a no-confidence vote in parliament last Thursday. His cabinet has been governing the euro zone country in a caretaker capacity.

“We went through hours of negotiations, and I am glad to announce that we have a deal on the budget’s approval,” Heger said at a press conference broadcast.

“Everybody had to make some compromise,” he said, adding that under the deal, four parties of the original ruling coalition will support the budget in a vote scheduled for Thursday morning.

The budget, with a deficit planned at 6.4% of gross domestic product, will include taxes on Russian crude, gas transportation, spirits, and gambling, Heger said.

The parties also agreed to transfer additional funds into healthcare from the budget’s reserve.

Heger presented the deal together with former Economy Minister Richard Sulik, whose SaS party left the coalition in September, and then helped the opposition to topple the government last week.

Heger and Sulik said the deal was solely related to the budget. Sulik said there were no talks at the moment on solutions to the political crisis, while Heger declined to comment on the state of the possible negotiations.

As part of the budget deal, Finance Minister and Heger’s OLANO party chief Igor Matovic will resign. His clashes with Sulik led to Sulik’s SaS party exit from the government.

President Zuzana Caputova asked the parties to have some deal by the end of January. She can appoint a new government at any time after she dismissed the previous one.

While some parties have called for early elections ahead of the regular vote due in early 2024, the required number of lawmakers – three-fifths of parliament – have not backed such plan so far.

(Reporting by Robert Muller; Editing by Chris Reese and David Evans)