Slovak President Ivan Gašparovič on Wednesday, June 23, gave the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ) election leader Iveta Radičová the task of forming a new government. He did so after Smer leader Robert Fico, whose party won the largest share of the vote in the June 12 general election, returned the mandate that he had received on Monday, June 14. Despite winning 34.79 percent of the vote, Fico's party was unable to form a government.
Radičová told Gašparovič that she had succeeded in finding coalition partners – Freedom and Solidarity (SaS), the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) and Most-Híd – with whom she is able to form a new government. "Based on SDKÚ's mandate, recommending Ms. Radičová for this position, I've given her a mandate to attempt to form a new government," Gašparovič said after meeting representatives of the centre-right parties, the TASR newswire reported.
Radičová accepted the mandate, and a deadline was set for Thursday, July 8, when Gašparovič plans to summon the opening of the new parliament. Radičová said that the centre-right parties have already come to an agreement on programme items that they aim to include in the new government manifesto. The centre-right parties met on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the coalition agreement, including the allocation of individual ministries.
Source: 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.
