After eight hours of passionate debate, the Slovak parliament voted down the boost of eurozone’s bail-out fund and failed to express confidence to the government of Iveta Radicova.

It was a battle of nerves with several outcomes of both temporary and permanent character.

Temporarily, the EU’s rescue plan has been blocked by a country of five million. As the last member state to vote on the issue, Slovakia broke off the marathon of positive rulings by 16 parliaments in the currency union. A few meters from destination, the Slovak runner has stopped and announced he would not run further. But please, don’t panic. Especially you, Sir of the financial markets. The Slovak runner will be replaced. That’s the rule of the game in the European Union. By the end of this week, the Slovak parliament is expected to vote again. Perhaps a bit later – now that the EU summit has been postponed. The main opposition social-democrat SMER party fulfilled its promise and abstained from the first vote as PM Radicova could not guarantee the approval by her coalition partners and was forced to take up the confidence motion. But, of course as true social democrats they are strictly pro-European; they will wait for their political conditions to be met before they cast their ballot again and help to approve the EU’s bail-out fund.

For PM Radicova it’s over, however. “At summits in Brussels, I have seen premiers come and go many times and I will go too,” she told MPs in what seemed like her good-bye speech, minutes before the vote. She appealed to them to keep in mind the international image of Slovakia in the challenging times Europe is facing. She maintained that it would not be correct for her to push the country into isolation. So she took the highest risk and was defeated. Whether it will be her permanent or temporary departure from the top Slovak politics is hard to say. But neither Europe nor Sir in the financial markets care, do they?

Pessimists say the image of Slovakia will suffer, permanently. We have set a very negative example. And if our friends in the ECB and European Commission had had a magic ball and seen this coming they would not have accepted us in the elite currency club. We expect solidarity from others but fail to express it ourselves. I must admit that I felt ashamed when listening to some deputies in Bratislava. For many of them, it really was only about us poor Slovaks not willing to pay for higher pensions of richer nations. While experts (even those really eurosceptic in ordinary times) are convincing us that the bolstered bail-out fund is necessary for the whole eurozone and its return to the “ordinary times”.

But then, we did have negative referendums for previous “key European reforms”, right? And we did see countries shutting off their labour markets from workers from new member states, didn’t we? Every now and then, solidarity with plans made in Brussels (or Berlin and Paris) is tested and not always nations or their parliaments pass that test as expected.

Although most of the times they do. In the first or second attempt.

Slovakia is making Europe a little bit nervous, again. First we threatened to bin the Lisbon Treaty, now we might sink the deal on saving the euro (or just Greece?).

Slovaks feature as one of the most Europe and euro-loving nations in many surveys. When asked about the credibility of the EU and national institutions, they seem ready to sack the national government, parliament and judges, while soundly proclaiming their trust in the European parliament (in the first place) and other Brussels-based bodies. However, when it comes to voting in the very same EU assembly, Slovakia wins the match for the lowest turn-out. It’s the politicians, argue some sociologists, explaining that Slovaks simply prefer the institutions where Slovak politicians are least represented.

Looking at the current political debate on the EU bail-out fund in the country, one must see some logics in such thinking.

In the last elections in 2010, the current major coalition party, centre-right Slovak Christian and Democratic Union (SDKU-DS) campaigned against the Slovak contribution in the first EU loan to Greece (approved by the previous centre-left government) and eventually managed to avoid the country’s commitment after taking the rule. One year on, the very same party represented by the Prime Minister Radicova and Finance Minister Miklos put their signature under the second EU loan to Greece and the permanent nature of the extended EU bail-out fund.

Ten days after the July Brussels summit, Richard Sulik, the speaker of the Slovak parliament and the chairman of the liberal Freedom and Solidarity party (SaS), passionately described the deal as a “bluff on the Slovak taxpayers” in his widely-read blog. SaS listed their arguments in a reader-friendly pamphlet titled “EU-bail-out fund, the journey back to socialism”. Although several economists and experts slammed their rhetoric as a sheer populism, some paid tribute to simple facts supporting SaS’ claims (“There have been 97 breaches of the Maastricht euro criteria during the 10 years of the eurozone’s history but no country has ever been punished”).

One of the loudest critics of Mr Sulik (apart from the finance minister Miklos) is the ex-PM Robert Fico, of the Social democrat SMER party. He evidently views himself as a great European. Under his government Slovakia joined the euro in 2009. One year before, the Slovak parliament managed to ratify the Lisbon Treaty after months of delay due to the opposition of the centre-right parties that form the current ruling coalition (apart from SaS which did not exist back then). The centre-right block risked the ratification of the major EU reform document as a way to protest against a newly adopted Slovak press law.

Back in 2008, Mr Fico shouted around that only him and his party cherished the European ideals and put them above the national politics. Now he says that the vote against the EU’s bail-out fund is “against Slovakia’s future” and that Slovakia simply “must support” it. However, his party will only support it if all ruling coalition parties do so – meaning, only in case his party’s votes will not be necessary to ratify the EU deal.

The vote in the Slovak parliament will be held after 23 October, according to the latest timetable. Due to the bickering in the ruling coalition, it might be linked with the vote of confidence. The Sulik’s camp insist they will not surrender even if their government should fall, while Mr Fico seems happy not to save the EU’s rescue plan for the alluring prize of early elections.

And what about the Slovak public? Judging by comments of people around, the argument against sending off our money without the prospect of getting it back is very easy to understand and sounds very logical. But then, we are speaking of wars and games by Slovak politicians. Who knows if they really know and can be trusted…

Any of them…

Or their proclaimed love for Europe..

PS: Just before this comment was published, PM Radicova came up with a special compromise offer that SaS party could accept and stop blocking the rescue deal in the Slovak parliament, according to media reports. The vote will be most probably held by 17 October after all – before the European summit in Brussels.