Independent MP Alojz Hlina, who last year left the Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OĽaNO) caucus, has decided to set up a new centrist political party called Občania (Citizens), he announced on June 5.
Hlina told the SITA newswire that the key ideas of the centrist party should be the civic principle, justice and help for the elderly and weak. He stressed values, the balance of rights and duties of citizens and the effort to find impartial and apolitical justice. He promised he would finance the party in accordance with the law, stressing that his is only the second party to have been founded in this election term. In the 2012 election, Hlina ran for OĽaNO, but last October left its caucus.
Political scientist Ján Baránek of the Polis polling agency told the Hospodárske Noviny daily that Hlina’s would become the latest party striving to exceed five percent (the electoral threshold needed to secure seats in parliament) – but it would probably not succeed.
Sources: SITA, Hospodárske Noviny
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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