BRATISLAVA (SITA) -- Appointing Miroslav Maxon as finance minister hoisted the number of Slovak Cabinet members to 19 and reinforced Slovakia's leading position in Central Europe as to the number of cabinet ministers. Hungary is happy with 14 ministers while 16 cabinet members manage Austria. The Czech and Polish Cabinets have 17 members. Germany, that in fact is a little bit bigger than Slovakia, can happily survive with 17. Why does the smallest central European country have the biggest cabinet? A comparison of central European cabinets shows a striking Slovak idiosyncrasy: we have three vice-premiers who manage no department. The Hungarian Cabinet has no vice-premier, while the interior minister substitutes for the premier when a need emerges. Austria and Germany traditionally have one vice-chancellor who at the same time is the foreign affairs minister. It is true, that the then Klaus' Cabinet had three vice-premiers, and latter even four, but each of them also managed a ministerial department. It is just Slovakia where three cabinet members are busy with vice-premiering only. Why? Let's forget the sanguine answer that Slovakia, thanks to its spectacular economic growth can afford paying more cabinet ministers than its neighbors. The alarmingly growing state deficit would erase any optimism. There are only arguments left questioning political maturity of the Slovak political stage, particularly the governing coalition. The first possible reason is in fact traditional and has been applied in each post-revolution cabinet -- the need to keep a balance between coalition partners though vice-premier posts. But why keep on doing it in such an anachronic manner? Allegedly, because our vice-premiers are supposed to coordinate the work of departments. Perhaps this need, which obviously has not emerged in other countries anyway, tells a lot about the quality of ministers and their incapability to coordinate their work without a master watching over them.