Coalition Party Calls for Ministerial Pay Freeze as Lawmakers Already Cut Salaries

Hlas-SD, a junior partner in Slovakia's ruling coalition, is demanding that Prime Minister Robert Fico put a proposal to freeze ministerial salaries and allowances on the government's agenda. The party's parliamentary leader Róbert Puci announced the demand at a press conference on Tuesday, emphasizing that members of parliament have already frozen their own wages. Hlas-SD is part of the governing coalition alongside Fico's Smer-SD party and the Slovak National Party (SNS), which came to power following elections in September 2023. The call for ministerial pay freezes comes as Slovakia faces economic pressures and public scrutiny over government spending, with lawmakers having already taken the symbolic step of freezing their parliamentary salaries.