Expertise, propriety and real solidarity will be the underlying principles of a new political party called Freedom and Solidarity (SaS), according to four members of the party's preparatory committee who announced on March 12 that the party was registered with the Interior Ministry on February 27 of this year, the TASR newswire wrote.
The committee is headed by economist and tax expert Richard Sulik, and also includes entrepreneur Robert Mistrík, economist Jozef Mihal, and the head of an organisation called Young Liberals, Richard Švihura.
According to the leaders of the party, they intend to promote freedom in a way that will ensure that this will not encroach on the freedom of others. Solidarity will be advanced in a manner that will lead to the state guaranteeing every citizen at least the minimum living standard and basic healthcare.
The party's officials slammed the current government cabinet for its inability to make use of the potential provided by economic reforms introduced in 2002-04 during the "fat years" of 2006 and 2007.
SaS will focus on economic solutions during the current economic crisis, proposing a package called 3x16 percent, whereby all taxes and social contributions would be 16 percent and all exceptions in the tax system would be abolished.
Sulík, who previously served as an aide to both former and current finance ministers - Ivan Miklos and Jan Pociatek, respectively - is co-author of the flat tax introduced by Mikulas Dzurinda's government. He conceded, however, that the public might view his cooperation with two opposing political sides in a negative way.
“I co-operated with the former finance minister (Mikloš) because I wanted the idea of a flat-tax rate to materialise and I co-operated with the current finance minister (Pociatek) because I was given room to make sure that the flat-tax rate wouldn’t be crushed,” he said.
The party's founding congress is slated to take place on March 28 with 100 party members to attend the event. The members have been chosen for their expertise but also on condition that they have never been members of the Communist Party and did not cooperate with the Czechoslovak secret intelligence service StB.
In addition, 95 of them have never been involved in any other political party. A poll conducted by the MVK agency in December 2008 revealed a 2 percent level of voter support for the party, which was initially launched in November of last year. TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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