A memorial plaque commemorating the 15th anniversary of the creation of the Slovak Republic was unveiled on Tuesday in Cerhov (Košice region). The ceremony was initiated by the Slovak National Party (SNS) and the Cerhov municipality as part of the combined SNS executive, ministerial caucus and MPs' caucus session.
The SNS chairman Ján Slota expressed its preliminary and, for the time being, conditional support for Ivan Gašparovič in next year's presidential election during the session. Following the session, Slota told journalists that the party would provide its definitive statement regarding the support for the current head of state only after he (Slota), as a party leader, had met Gašparovič and discussed some practical issues with him. He specified that they could include, for instance, Slovakia's representation abroad.
At the session, the party executive supported Slovakia's entry to the Eurozone set for January 1, 2009. This year, the SNS wants to push for the change of the Election Act and a change of the current proportional representation (PR) system to a majority system. According to Slota, it could change the situation in southern regions of Slovakia, where the majority of Slovak citizens find themselves represented mostly by Hungarian MPs. The SNS is also preparing for the election to the European Parliament scheduled for 2009. The party is convinced that it will win two or three MEP seats, whereas in 2004 they failed to win any, Slota said. TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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