Slovakia’s parliament has approved the state budget for next year in a boost for populist Prime Minister Robert Fico.

Commentators have questioned whether Fico's left-right three-party coalition still wields a durable majority after three legislators led by Rudolf Huliak, who were elected on the  list of the far-right SNS party, left the SNS parliamentary grouping last month and demanded a ministerial portfolio. This has raised speculation about an early election, something that Fico himself has encouraged in order to put pressure on the maverick trio.

Altogether, 79 legislators backed the state budget, that is 76 coalition legislators and the Huliak trio, giving Fico’s coalition a slim majority in the parliament of 150 MPs.

“I understand we have a tight majority, which we have to fix,” Fico was quoted as saying by daily SME, which reported that he had held talks with Huliak following the budget approval on Tuesday, December 3.

Huliak, Pavel Luptak and Ivan Sevcik had earlier declared their support only for the state budget legislation, saying there won’t be further support in December.  

As per the approved legislation, the country’s state budget deficit should amount to €6.4bn next year, or 4.7% of GDP, down from the 5.8% of GDP expected this year. By 2027, the government plans to bring down the deficit to 3% of GDP, in line with the requirements of the EU's Stability and Growth Pact.

The state budget’s overall income should be €27.6bn, while overall costs should be €34bn.

Fico’s cabinet remains under pressure from the opposition as well as the labour unions, with which his populist Smer party has traditionally enjoyed good relations.

Fico's cabinet was forced to pass a larger-than-expected consolidation package in response to the public finance deficit. The measures included tax hikes, something Fico had opposed until this spring. Slovakia was put under the EU's Excessive Deficit Procedure in June.

“The whole of Slovakia will have to tighten their belts while the government will eat away [available] money in higher salaries, rents and private jets,” said Michal Šimečka, leader of the largest opposition party, the centrist Progressive Slovakia.

Radovan Durana, an analyst at the Bratislava-based Institute of Economic and Social Analyses (INESS), stated that the budget “lowers the deficit, but does not heal the public finances”.

“There could not have been any other outcome since the government introduced minimal measures on the costs side,” Durana was quoted as saying by online news outlet Aktuality.sk.