Tensions within the ruling centre-right coalition have been spiced up ahead of the forthcoming parliamentary vote on the state budget, one of the most important tasks facing the government before the end of the year.

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Peter Gonda of the Conservative Institute of M.R Štefánik, a think tank, said that from the point of view of solving the serious public finance problems and their causes, the cabinet’s draft budget is “too cautious, not ambitious enough, politically scared, and does not thoroughly address the root causes of the budget problems”.

Gonda stated that the proposed budget does not reduce the public finance deficit sufficiently and also brings an increased level of obligatory financial burden on citizens through higher tax burdens rather than by making more significant cuts in expenditures.

“The government is relying on increased revenues into the budget and is not focusing on an overall drop in public spending,” Gonda said.

Beata Balogová. Article was published in the Slovakia`s English-language weekly The Slovak Spectator. Read the whole article here.