Agriculture minister Vlcan withstands no-confidence motion

Agriculture Minister Samuel Vlcan survived a no-confidence motion in Parliament on Thursday, as only 42 of the 122 MPs present voted in favour of his ouster. The no-confidence motion in Vlcan was initiated by the opposition Smer-SD party which reproached him for what it saw as his lack of action in transferring state forest land in protected areas under the administration of the Landscape Protection Office, non-transparent management of funds for subsidies for African swine fever measures and insufficient aid from the Agriculture Ministry for Slovak food producers.