Opposition party Most-Híd has officially abandoned its membership in the People’s Platform in which it was grouped with Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) and Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ), Most-Híd chairman Béla Bugár told a press conference on March 18.
The Platform didn’t work properly, and it failed to meet the expectations of the public and even the parties that were its members, according to Bugár. He pointed to the difficult process of striking agreement on a joint presidential candidate - KDH’s Pavol Hrušovský – and how some SDKÚ top officials even voiced support for other candidates.
“After carefully weighing these facts and after realising that people don’t believe the People's Platform can act as an alternative to Smer, we’ve decided to let our partners know that Most-Híd has decided to leave (the platform),” said Bugár, as quoted by the TASR newswire .
The People’s Platform was formed in November 2012 following an initiative from the ranks of KDH. The grouping’s primary goal was to provide a centre-right alternative to Prime Minister Robert Fico’s single-party government. This dream began to dissolve approximately a year later due to the platform’s inability to form coalitions in support of joint candidates in the November regional elections, however. The crisis in the grouping’s co-operation was only deepened in the run-up to the recent presidential election, when KDH agreed on a deal with the governing Smer concerning major constitutional changes associated with the judiciary and the definition of marriage. In addition, the poor election result (3.3 percent) of KDH’s caucus chairman Hrušovský, who was the joint presidential candidate of the Platform, is considered to be the final nail in the coffin for the grouping.
(Source: TASR)
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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