Slovakia’s Labor Minister Viera Tomanová claims that the poverty rate in Slovakia shows a sinking trend. The statement came as a response to representatives of the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ) slammed Prime Minister Robert Fico for not devoting sufficient attention to the problem of the growing unemployment rate in Slovakia, newswire SITA wrote.
Tomanová said that 11 percent of people in Slovakia are endangered by poverty, compared with the EU’s average of 16 percent. She further added that the incumbent cabinet started helping these groups of people immediately following its appointment. The statements of the opposition party about growing poverty in Slovakia are demagogic, Tomanová said while accusing the opposition of “constant criticism of the current cabinet”.
SDKÚ representatives slammed the cabinet for the swelling poverty rate, as shown by the EU Survey on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) 2008, carried out in April. The Slovak Statistics Office released the figures in July.
Tomanová said that the EU-SILC survey which the SDKÚ used as the basis of its arguments officially provided figures just for 2007, SITA wrote.
SDKÚ leader Mikuláš Dzurinda considers the increase in unemployment a great calamity. Party deputy chair Ivan Mikloš sees the main problem in the fact that people are losing jobs en masse but are unable to find new ones, while the cabinet is wasting money, according to SITA.
