Slovak prime minister survives no-confidence vote

Slovakia's Prime Minister Iveta Radicova on Wednesday survived a parliamentary no-confidence motion launched by the left-wing opposition over corruption allegations.

Out of a 147 lawmakers present, 69 supported the no-confidence vote in Radicova's government while 78 MPs backed her after a twelve-hour heated discussion.

The centre-right coalition comprising four parties is backed by a narrow 79-vote bloc in the 150-member parliament.

The main opposition party Smer-SD of former prime minister Robert Fico was behind the no-confidence motion.

It had accused Radicova of corruption over the selection of a new building for the country's taxation headquarters.

Fico had also argued that Radicova, head of the centre-right coalition since July 2010, lacks the political clout required to galvanize the support of all coalition lawmakers to ratify the eurozone rescue fund.

Radicova faces opposition on the bailout from junior coalition partner Freedom and Solidarity (SaS), without which the government cannot muster enough votes to pass the motion.

Without SaS, Radicova would have to team up with the biggest opposition party, the social democratic Smer, to ratify the eurozone rescue funding, but Smer's leader Fico said his party would back the proposal only if the coalition votes for it unanimously.

"If the government doesn't know how to do it, they should quit and call an early election," he said Tuesday before the confidence vote.

An EU member since 2004 and part of the eurozone since 2009, Slovakia was the only country to refuse to participate in an emergency loan for Greece last year.

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