Today on 17 of August five members of Slovakia’s coalition party that has the name “Siet” relinquish the party. After this decision, they concluded that members would continue to support the ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Roberto Fico. The five dissenters, who remain members of parliament, have long criticized party chief Radoslav Prochazka for authoritarian decision making. Prochazka was replaced at a congress last weekend, but the rebels oppose the young leader, Roman Berkeley. “We are leaving Siet as of today. We will continue to take part in fulfilling the government programme,” the faction said.

The governing coalition consists of Fico’s leftist Smer party, the center-right Slovak National Party, the ethnic Hungarian Most parties, and Siet. It is supported by 81 lawmakers in the 150-member parliament.

A spokeswoman for Smer said the departure would not cause any consequence on the regime. Slovakia has the rotating six-month European Union presidency until December. The insurgents said they would negotiate the possibility of joining Most (Bridge), a centrist party which proposes to bring together Slovaks and the ethnic Hungarian minority. Political analysts say the departure may lead to a shakeup at the transport ministry because Siet, now entrusted with but two lawmakers, may lose the power to appoint a curate. Siet has been the weakest link between the four coalition parties since they constituted a regime after an inconclusive election in March. Even before the coalition agreement was signed, it lost three out of 10 lawmakers who refused to join a Fico-led coalition.

Despite polling as the runner-up to leftist Smer in most opinion surveys before the election, Siet only won 5.6% of the vote. It has since dropped off further and polled just 1.4% in the last poll by Focus agency, published in June. Slovakia supports the revolving presidency of the Council of the EU until the close of the year.

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