Fico's government will face a vote of confidence on Thursday. Following the Constitutional Court's interpretation, it has been caught up in a dispute over the word "immediately" as well as high indebtedness

The fourth government of Robert Fico (Smer-SD) will face a vote of confidence in the National Council on Thursday, June 18. The extraordinary session, set for 10:00 a.m., was convened by parliament speaker Richard Raši (Hlas-SD) on Wednesday, just a few hours after the Constitutional Court issued a binding interpretation: the cabinet was supposed to request a vote of confidence "immediately" after public debt exceeded the limit set by the constitutional law, according to Eurostat data. The government had been postponing this obligation since autumn 2025, with part of the coalition arguing that the law does not specify an exact deadline. TASR ↗

What the Constitutional Court ruled

The plenary session of the Constitutional Court issued a binding interpretation of the constitutional law on budgetary responsibility on Wednesday. According to it, the phrase "without undue delay" means "immediate, active conduct by the government aimed at submitting the request," with no elements of unjustified inaction. The court emphasized that neither the constitution nor the law itself grants the government any 30-day deadline. According to the interpretation, parliament, too, must act immediately: it must discuss the request and decide on it without undue delay. SME ↗

The interpretation was requested in March by a group of opposition MPs represented by Lucia Plaváková (Progressive Slovakia). They argued that when the government failed to request a vote of confidence during the session held from November 25 to December 12, 2025, it violated the principle of parliamentary democracy and the political accountability of the executive power to parliament. Pravda ↗

Why it must request a vote of confidence at all

The reason lies in the so-called debt brake. The 2011 constitutional law on budgetary responsibility defines five sanction bands based on the level of public debt — the higher the debt, the harsher the measures triggered, and they accumulate. The second-highest band already requires a balanced or surplus budget, and the highest band adds the obligation to request a vote of confidence from parliament; in the strictest regime, both apply simultaneously. Council for Budget Responsibility ↗

The upper debt limit was originally 60 percent of GDP and is gradually being lowered toward 50 percent. This is precisely why the debt, which Eurostat calculated for 2024 at 59.7 percent of GDP on October 21, 2025 — just below the historic high of the pandemic year 2021 (60.2 percent) — pushed Slovakia into the strictest sanction band. According to projections by the Council for Budget Responsibility cited by media, the debt was expected to keep rising. The government's obligation to request a vote of confidence therefore arose as early as late November 2025. Aktuality.sk ↗

Seven months of dispute over one word

What the Constitutional Court resolved with a single interpretation had been dragging on within the coalition for more than half a year. Agriculture Minister Richard Takáč (Smer-SD) advised journalists back in January to "get this little word interpreted," adding that "immediately" could mean several months for one person and even a year for another. Prime Minister Fico, for his part, claimed that the government would comply with the law "within a deadline it considers adequate." SME ↗

Marián Giba, head of the Department of Constitutional Law at the Faculty of Law of Comenius University, noted that the court had refuted these interpretations — in his view, "even a 30-day delay would have been too long." Decisions of the Constitutional Court are binding, and those to whom they are addressed must abide by them. TASR ↗

What will happen on Thursday

Passing a vote of confidence requires the votes of an absolute majority of all MPs, meaning at least 76 out of 150. The Smer–Hlas–SNS coalition, which started out with 79 seats after the 2023 elections, has since seen its ranks thin, so its majority today is narrow and the vote is not merely a formality. SME ↗

SNS chairman Andrej Danko nonetheless projects calm: "The prime minister need not worry" that the government would fail to win the vote of confidence, and he described the coalition as stable despite "relationship issues." Hlas-SD has announced it will approve the government's request. The government is thus counting on passing the test. TASR ↗

The second thing the debt brake requires at this level of debt — a balanced budget — has already been rejected by Fico, who said he would instead send parliament a pro-growth economic package. The government will thus pass the formal confidence test, but has not yet signaled stricter budgetary discipline. Pravda ↗

What hotinfo is following

The outcome of Thursday's vote and whether the coalition maintains discipline given its narrow majority.

Whether the government will also submit the second required item — a balanced budget — or stick only with the economic package.

Reactions from the opposition (PS, KDH) and from President Peter Pellegrini, should the government drag out the deadline any further.

Developments in public debt and the moment when the obligation to request a vote of confidence arises again — according to the court's interpretation, this can recur once per calendar year following a new publication of the debt level by the European Commission.