PRIME MINISTER Robert Fico will run for the presidential chair as a candidate of his party, Smer.
Fico announced this during the cermony the government organised on December 18, which was meant to report on the work of the government for 2013. All top governmental officials, MPs of the ruling Smer party, foreign diplomats working in Slovakia, but also, for instance, the head of the Supreme Court Stefan Harabin, attended the cermony.
It is a duty of the ruling party, which enjoys a strong mandate in the parliament, to propose a candidate for the presidential office, Fico said.
“I’m going to run for the post in a full political condition,” Fico said.
Fico criticised the EU for being unstable and drew the picture of the Slovak government which wouldn’t be able to cooperate with the president. He noted that none of the candidates appear to be interested in a dialogue with the Smer government.
Fico practically launched his campaign with these statements, as well as by stressing that country’s right-leaning parties are disintegrating, leaving it to his party to guarantee political stability.
In his speech, Fico praised the government’s budget consolidation efforts, and measures like the amendment on the law on collective bargaining, or the valorisation of the so-called Christmas pensions or salary raise for teachers.
Fico pledged that energy prices for households will not rise in 2014.
