CULTURE Minister Marek Maďarič will resign from the post of Smer’s deputy chairman at the party’s next session, but he will keep his ministerial post. The decision came in response to the presidential elections, which saw Prime Minister Robert Fico lose to philanthropist Andrej Kiska. Maďarič headed Fico’s campaign. Other Smer members, however, say that he may return to the leadership position.
Maďarič confirmed to journalists that he has already informed his colleagues at the leadership session held on April 8.
“It was my decision, which is in line with my concept of the political culture,” he said, as quoted by the TASR newswire.
Maďarič had spoken of drawing consequences for lost elections even before announcing the second-round results, the Sme daily wrote.
Some members of Smer believe that they can re-elect Maďarič to the post of deputy chair or persuade him to only propose his resignation, since they do not consider the campaign to have been a failure. They also told Sme that nobody has forced nor recommended Maďarič to resign.
Meanwhile, members of the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) have accepted their responsibility for the failure of Pavol Hrušovský in the elections. While Hrušovský left his post as chair of the parliamentary caucus, Pavol Abrhan, the man responsible for his campaign, resigned from his post as the party’s deputy chair.
“I thank Pavol Hrušovský for his courage and commitment in the campaign,” said Ján Figeľ, as quoted by TASR. “The election outcome did not correspond with the KDH’s standing, so we consider it to have been a failure.”
The party is expected to elect a new party caucus chairman and a new vice-chairman in the coming days. Furthermore, the KDH is set to hold a convention in the autumn during which Figeľ will discuss personnel issues.
Hrušovský and Abrhan’s resignations will not impact the KDH’s support among voters, political analysts say, as reported by the SITA newswire.
“The preferences of the party are stable and the voters are satisfied,” analyst Grigorij Mesežnikov told SITA, adding that the resignation is an understandable step in both cases. Additionally, he believes the entire board of the party should do some self-reflecting.
