Newly elected leader of Progressive Slovakia, Ivan Štefunko (source: SITA)
The ambition of the new political movement, Progressive Slovakia (Progresíven Slovensko – PS) is to win at least 20 percent of the voter’s support and to be part of setting up the next government in 2020. The political movement held its founding congress in Žilina on January 20 when it elected Ivan Štefunko, one of its founders, as chairman.
“We’ll be a strong political force that will change Slovakia as early as the next [general] elections,” said Štefunko as cited by the TASR newswire.
Štefunko called for the movement to be centristic and liberal, as old labels like left and right wing are not valid any more.
“Slovakia is full of people who want a modern, open and European country,” said Štefunko.
At the congress, PS further approved its statutes and elected its vice chairs. These are lawyers Zuzana Čaputová and Irena Bihariová, cultural policy expert Zora Jaurová, entrepreneur Michal Truban and international relations expert Michal Simeček. One of the leaders of the movement is Martin Poliačik who was a founding member of the Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party. He left SaS last November.
Truban pointed out that 95 percent of the founding members of PS have never been in politics.
“We are not a party of one strong man, but a strong team full of leaders,” said Truban as cited by the TASR newswire. “In the leadership we have people from around Slovakia who helped us to build the movement. These are strong personalities in their communities.”
Čaputová specified that the party’s main priorities are education and health care but it wants to focus on other essential topics such as law and justice and environmental protection.
Progressive Slovakia officially joined the Slovak political scene on November 27, 2017, with the Interior Ministry registering it as a political movement.
