Slovakia’s ruling left-right coalition ledby populist Prime Minister Robert Fico has removed the opposition leader Michal Simecka, chairman of the centrist Progressive Slovakia party, from the post of vice chair of the parliament in an unprecedented move.

In a secret ballot vote 76 of the 77 present legislators voted for Simecka’s removal, which Simecka described as a “revenge” of the ruling coalition for his opposition work. “I am looking forward to beating you in the elections. Now I have several more hours a day to do it,” Simecka told Fico and the legislators of his ruling coalition, which holds a narrow majority in the parliament.

It is the first time in the history of the Slovak National Council (parliament) that an opposition leader has been removed from the post of one of the vice chairs  (speakers) of the parliament, a post traditionally reserved for representatives of the opposition.  

Simecka said in an ironic way that “now all the problems of Slovakia will be solved”, including “lower prices of food, teachers and nurses will have higher wages, our children will stop running away to abroad, you could come to Kosice using the highway, and even the water from beer houses will pump itself out,” referring to the damaging floods which have hit parts of Slovakia. 

The unprecedented move was also commented on by the president of the country Peter Pellegrini, who was backed by Fico’s coalition in his presidential campaign this spring and who said that the opposition should be represented in the leadership of the parliament.

“The ruling coalition should enable such a solution and opposition should propose relevant candidates to the  posts,” Pellegrini said, adding that the “functioning of the National Council and its ability to pass legislation to the benefit of the people have to be in higher interest for the coalition and opposition than personal ambitions and unfulfilled political ideas”.

Samual Migal and Radomir Salitros, two of the legislators from the centre-left Hlas party, which is a key ally of Fico’s leftist  Smer, did not take part in the vote. “This issue is unnecessarily polarising society,” Migal told the country’s media, adding there are more important issues to be addressed.

Opposition parties the neoliberal SaS, and the Christian Democrats (KDH) have been backing Simecka, who also held one of the top parliamentary posts in the European Parliament prior to his election to his country’s parliament in September last year.

“This is not about Michal Simecka, this is about something else. It is about trouncing democracy, trouncing of democratic rules, which have worked here for 34 years, and that is why we do not like it,” KDH leader Milan Majersky stated.

Fico’s coalition’s no-confidence motion against Simecka came as a culmination of public attacks against Simecka and his family, launched by Fico.

Among other accusations, Fico alleges Simecka's family has benefited from state subsidies through a foundation named after his grandfather, the Czechoslovak writer, philosopher and communist-era dissident Milan Simecka, who died in 1990. Simecka, who is 40, denies receiving any money from the civil society foundation. 

“If the Andrej Bagar Theatre in Nitra obtains state support, it does not mean that the family of Andrej Bagar benefits from it,” said in August, giving the example of the 20th century Slovak actor and director and the theatre in the town of Nitra named after Bagar.

Removing Simecka means that all the vice chairs are now from government parties, which can limit opposition time in the parliament, but Fico insisted that his coalition respects the opposition's right to hold one of the vice chair posts and called on a different opposition candidate to be nominated.

The ruling coalition and liberal opposition have been exchanging fierce political messages in the past year, marking greater political polarisation in the society and protests against Fico’s government, which has pursued controversial legislative moves aimed at greater control of the judiciary, police and public media. Earlier this month, international media speculated that the European Commission is considering sanctions against Slovakia over its rule of law backsliding.