Instead of the originally planned meeting of the Opposition Council, which should have taken place on January 15, SDKÚ-DS will hold two separate bilateral sessions with the KDH party (Christian Democrats) and with the ethnic-Hungarian SMK party during the week of January 26, the TASR newswire was told by SDKU-DS caucus leader Stanislav Janis on Sunday, January 25.
“We want to inform both opposition partners about the measures we have proposed in order to tackle the effects of the economic crisis. I suppose that we’ll get them on the agenda of the next Parliamentary session,” said Janis.
The Opposition Council won’t take place due to the KDH's decision not to talk with SMK representatives, stated Janis. KDH issued a statement on January 14 that it would not attend the talks in protest against SMK vice-chairman Miklós Duray's statements at a rally of ethnic-Hungarians in Komárno earlier in January. At the meeting in Komárno, Duray called for ethnic Hungarians to be given the right of self-determination, citing the advantages of such a status.
“The territorial integrity of Slovakia is a matter of national interest, which is the number one priority for KDH," the leader of the Christian Democrats, Pavol Hrušovský, told TASR on January 14. KDH spokesman Martin Krajčovič emphasised on January 25 that a policy such as that of SMK was incompatible with KDH's policies and that the party leadership would meet on January 26 only with SDKU-DS representatives.
“We’re scheduled to have bilateral talks with SDKU-DS on Tuesday, January 27,” SMK spokesperson Eva Dunajská told TASR, declining to comment on KDH's stance. TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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