Many rank-and-file members of the Slovak National Party (SNS) are unhappy with a change in the criteria under which delegates are being selected to attend a May 19 party congress at which the party's poor results at the recent general election are to be evaluated, the TASR newswire reported on Thursday, April 12, citing an anonymous source within the SNS.
The selection criteria for the last party congress, in 2010, were allegedly set in such a way as to secure the re-election of Ján Slota as party chairman, while the present criteria were conceived with the aim of preventing criticism of Slota over the SNS' failure to get into parliament in last month's general election.
Many party members in various parts of Slovakia are reportedly upset with the way the election campaign was carried out and the fact that the SNS leadership failed to stem a loss of support to Smer and the extreme right-wing People's Party Our Slovakia, led by Marian Kotleba.
While Slota has said that his days at the helm of the party are coming to an end, many SNS members don't believe that he will actually step down. The party itself dismissed rumours of an internal power struggle, TASR reported, citing SNS spokesperson Jana Benková.
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.
