The Slovak government has won a confidence vote in parliament, paving the way for Prime Minister Robert Fico to carry out his agenda of bringing the country to the euro zone and building a welfare state.
Fico's leftist Smer party created a coalition government with the far right nationalists and the party of former ruler Vladimir Meciar after winning a June 17 election, in which he beat centre-right former Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda.
The 150-seat parliament, in which Fico's coalition holds a comfortable majority of 85 votes, endorsed a government programme that envisages policies aimed at improving living conditions of Slovaks while ensuring the European Union member can adopt the euro in 2009, as planned.
"We have set a very difficult task, because we are a government with a strong social focus, and, at the same time, we have to fulfil conditions required for adopting the euro," Fico said at the end of the three-day debate on the government programme.
The measures, which Fico said would ease the pain of Dzurinda's reforms, included plans to boost financial support for young families, more money for pensioners, and an end to unpopular fees for visiting a doctor.
The programme manifesto, the key document for the four-year term, said all policies, such as tax changes or budget measures, would be closely co-ordinated with the central bank to stay on track for adopting the euro.
Slovakia aspires to be the first of the four largest new EU members in central Europe to enter the euro zone, ahead of the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary.
Investors had dumped the Slovak crown after the election, fearing Fico's agenda could jeopardise the euro adoption timetable set by Dzurinda's government.
The capital flight pushed the central bank to support the currency with interventions worth around three billion euros, by market estimates. Former Finance Minister Ivan Miklos, the architect of Dzurinda's economic measures that were praised by investors, said Fico's plans threatened to widen the fiscal deficit and boost inflation, and in turn jeopardise the goal of joining the euro zone.
