WHILE the Slovak authorities officially announced that they do not recognise the March 16 referendum in Crimea, Slovak MEP Monika Flašíková-Beňová disagrees with this stance.
If 85 percent of the citizens of an autonomous area participate in the referendum and 95 percent of them say they have a different idea about how they want to live, that cannot be ignored, Flašíková-Beňová said for the SITA newswire.
She also rejected comparing Crimea to Kosovo or to the Hungarians living in Slovakia.
“These are different things,” she said. “In Slovakia, we do not have an autonomous area.”
Flašíková-Beňová said it is a shame how some people treat democracy.
“One day politicians say they do not respect the election results,” Flašíková-Beňová said, adding that the people in Crimea have made a decision and that the US has offended 85 percent of the local inhabitants. “I do respect democracy, even when the result is not positive for me.”
Flašiková-Beňová currently sits in the European Parliament for the ruling Smer party and is running for re-election in the upcoming elections as number two on the party slate, after current EU Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič, the leader of the slate.
Šefčovič called Flašíková-Beňovás’ statements her personal opinion.
“The EU and the US will not recognise the results of this referendum, because such a serious referendum should not take place with such haste, in conflict with the Ukrainian Constitution, without foreign observers and in a situation when foreign troops are on the given territory,” he said, as quoted by SITA.
Prime Minister Robert Fico said the events in Ukraine are controversial and as such provoke various reactions.
“I was asking at the EU summit why we did not discuss the snipers who were shooting into people and there was a suspicion that these snipers were ordered by the opposition,” Fico said, as quoted by SITA. “When it comes to power games, some unpleasant things just don’t get discussed.” He added that Smer representatives must be able to state their own opinions.
Fico said Ukraine is wrong to think that after the association treaties with the EU are signed, that billions of euros will pour into the country.
“It is a big mistake of our friends in Ukraine [to think] that they will not have to do their homework, [to enact] tough reforms,” Fico said. “They’ll see what it is like having the International Monetary Fund on their backs and what reforms they will have to make. We keep our fingers crossed for Ukraine and I’m glad Ukraine is getting a European perspective, but it won’t be free.”
Fico added that he would never agree that EU states should aid Ukraine from their own state budgets.
Source: SITA
Compiled by Michaela Terenzani from press reports.
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information
presented in its Flash News postings.
