Municipal elections to shuffle opposition and alliances

BEFORE the municipal elections slated for November 15, opposition parties are trying to create various alliances that vary from one city to the next, the Sme daily wrote on July 29. Thus far, however, Radoslav Procházka’s Sieť party had avoided forming such alliances.

BEFORE the municipal elections slated for November 15, opposition parties are trying to create various alliances that vary from one city to the next, the Sme daily wrote on July 29. Thus far, however, Radoslav Procházka’s Sieť party had avoided forming such alliances.

It seems that in those few coalitions that seem viable, Sieť should collaborate mostly with Most-Híd, Sme writes. Sieť seems to consciously avoid coalitions with Christian-Democratic Movement (KDH), Freedom and Solidarity (SaS), Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OĽaNO) and Nova. It does not plan to cooperate with SDKÚ, either; and SDKÚ members have started leaving their party for Sieť. Sieť conditions its support for candidates for mayors with them signing a so-called “mayoral oath”, pledging to stick to a set of moral rules including receiving just one salary even when keeping several public functions.

Most right wing parties exclude coalitions with Smer, only the KDH is willing to do so, with one probably appearing in Nitra. There, KDH plans to support Smer candidate Jozef Dvonč. The final coalitions will probably be officially known only in the second half of August, Sme wrote.

In Bratislava, situation is more complicated. SDKÚ so far does not know whether it will join the KDH, Most-Híd, SaS and NOVA coalition, the SITA newswire wrote. Regional SDKÚ spokesman Michal Luciak told SITA that his party has asked for more time to decide, naming July 30 or 31 as the final deadline. Luciak added that Bratislava city councillor Ivo Nesroval is still his party’s candidate for mayor.

Sieť is basing its decision on whether or not to support Nesrovnal on how good his election programme is, Procházka told the TASR newswire on July 29. Nesrovnal is reportedly considering joining Sieť.

“Sieť isn’t exerting any pressure, and will never exert any pressure on somebody to betray their conscience or do any sort of somersaults,” Procházka said.

Sieť and Most-Híd have allegedly reached an agreement with Nesrovnal who currently heads the SDKÚ caucus on Bratislava city council, on his bid for mayor, TASR learned on July 28. “His departure from SDKÚ is also in play,” an unnamed source close to SDKÚ told TASR.

(Source: Sme, SITA, TASR)
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.

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