Pellegrini reveals Slovakia’s demands in post-European elections negotiations

Slovak President Peter Pellegrini clearly demonstrated on Monday that he did not come to Brussels, where an informal meeting of European leaders was held to deliberate on who should hold the EU top posts for the upcoming five years, to play a good Samaritan.

Pellegrini, who took office on Saturday, took the place of Prime Minister Robert Fico at the June 17 summit because Fico is currently recuperating from a shooting incident that occurred in May.

Pellegrini said that he cannot confirm Slovakia’s open support for European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s second term, as reported by Slovakia’s TASR news agency. However, Pellegrini was pretty clear about the price to be paid for Slovakia’s support of Portugal’s ex-premier António Costa, pushed through by the Party of European Socialists (PES), as the next president of the European Council, a body of European leaders that decides on the bloc’s political direction.

He also decided to lecture to Estonia’s Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, which the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), another European political party, wants to see appointed as the EU’s next foreign policy boss.