Smer's leader Robert Fico (l) and SNS chair Andrej Danko (r) (source: TASR)
THE BASIC prerequisite for creating a stable government in Slovakia following the March 5 general election is cooperation between Smer and the Slovak National Party (SNS).
“We concur on this,” Prime Minister and Smer’s chair Robert Fico said, after meeting with SNS leader Andrej Danko on March 9, as quoted by the TASR newswire.
Earlier that day Fico was officially appointed by President Andrej Kiska to negotiate the creation of a new government as leader of the winning party. A deadline of March 18 for the conclusion of this process was set. Representatives of Sieť and Most-Híd have already declined an invitation to the talks.
Fico continued that both parties have a positive view of a strong role of the state and they also agree on defending the national interests.
“At the same time I respect all existing differences between us,” Fico said, as quoted by TASR, adding that he sees scope for further talks with SNS. “This was a basic meeting, further ones must be based on this.”
Following the meeting with Fico, Danko pointed out that there is a real possibility that no functioning government will be set up due to the election results.
“The election has shown that it’s possible to gain votes pretty easily using ‘media politics’,” Danko said, as quoted by TASR. “It’s easy to deceive voters, it can take just a few months.”
In the election Smer won 49 seats in parliament, while SNS secured 15, so this is a far cry from reaching a majority of 76 in the 150-member house.
Meanwhile, the chair of the Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party Richard Sulík continued to hold unofficial talks with leaders of other parliamentary parties, meeting with Sieť’s Radoslav Procházka. Sulík called the meeting constructive, the Sme daily reported on its website.
Procházka responded that the unofficial talks are “going well”, Sme wrote.
