If opposition SDKÚ-DS chairman (and former two times PM) Mikuláš Dzurinda successfully stands his ground as party chairman, former defence minister Juraj Liška will probably resign from his post as party vice chairman, Liška told the TASR on February 20.
"I cannot hold the post of party vice-chairman when I disagree with the style of policies being carried out," said Liska, according to whom the SDKÚ-DS chairman was losing the capacity for self-reflection, and lacked empathy with the problems of ordinary people. Liška says Dzurinda is gradually becoming an obstacle to the growth of party support, as his public trust ratings in polls are consistently low. He says that many people at various levels in SDKÚ-DS think that the time has come to replace the chairman, but the question is how many of them will be willing to express it publicly.
"I cannot hide my surprise over what is going on, and that I'm learning from the media what one should expect to hear from party meetings," Dzurinda said in reaction to Liška's comments. He added that he didn't plan to resign from the post. In his opinion, the question marks over the whole situation were spurred on by the fact that the last meeting of SDKÚ-DS caucus didn't touch on the issues that are now resonating in media.
According to Dzurinda, the whole problem stems from an incident in Trenčianske Teplice, when a former member of the regional council of SDKÚ-DS in Trenčín (Jaroslav Závodský) accused Trenčianske Teplice mayor Štefan Škultéty (SDKÚ-DS) of a non-transparent sale of lucrative land in the centre of the town. The mayor of Trenčianske Teplice denies all Závodský's accusations. Dzurinda says he can see that Závodský's business plans realised are at the root of the statements, and Dzurinda says Liška and Závodský have a very close relationship. TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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