Slovakia to open last-gasp EFSF talks amid cabinet crisis

Slovakia's deadlocked centre-right coalition was on the verge of crumbling as it was set to meet for last-gasp talks ahead of a parliamentary vote on the European Union's EFSF rescue fund on Tuesday. Facing the worst crisis since her four-party cabinet took power in July 2010, reports said Prime Minister Iveta Radicova had offered to resign if it would help push the fund through parliament despite stiff opposition from a rebel coalition party. The SITA news agency said Monday Radicova had offered to tie the EFSF vote to a confidence vote on the cabinet, resign if the fund does not make it, or resign before the vote. "By the morning, I will take a responsible decision on further steps that I'll propose to the coalition partners," Radicova said when leaving the last round of inconclusive talks late Monday. And, asked by journalists if she felt like going on, she said: "It's not about feeling, it's about being able to govern." The liberal Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party is threatening to torpedo the fund in parliament unless Slovakia is exempt from providing guarantees worth 7.7 billion euros ($10.2 billion) for the revamped 440-billion-euro EFSF. It also wants an opt-out from the European Stabilisation Mechanism (ESM), a permanent bailout fund designed to replace the EFSF in 2013, and veto power for Slovakia over future emergency loan disbursements from the EFSF. The EFSF was set up in May 2010 to save Greece from default, and eurozone leaders agreed in July to boost its powers to stem the debt crisis threatening the whole euro project. Its expansion requires the backing of all 17 eurozone states, and Slovakia, which joined the euro group in 2009, is the last member to vote after Malta said yes on Monday night. Radicova, whose coalition commands 79 votes in the 150-member parliament, depends on the SaS's 22 seats in the vote scheduled for Tuesday afternoon -- or failing their support, on the opposition left powerhouse Smer-SD. But the Smer-SD leader, ex-prime minister Robert Fico, has made his party's backing conditional on a power shift in the coalition government or a snap election.