Slovakian president violates consititution

After incumbent Prime Minister Robert Fico, the nominal election winner of the parliamentary elections in Slovakia, was unable to forge a coalition government, President Ivan Gašparovič has now confided the task to the conservative Iveta Radičová.The liberal daily Sme is incensed that it even occurred to Gašparovič to entrust Fico with forming a government in the first place: "Once more the familiar and embarrassing game of empowering politicians to form a government has been blemished by the president's appeal to customary practice. The president can only act on the basis of the constitution, and no article in the constitution gives him the right to empower those who have won the most votes to form a government. ... This unconstitutional game seems to be a national pastime of our presidents. ... A president who appoints a government other than that comprising the four [conservative] parties who have a majority in parliament deliberately violates the constitution."

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