After 21 years the chairman of the Movement for Democratic Slovakia (HZDS), Vladimír Mečiar, is leaving his post. The three-time prime minister who helped to establish an independent Slovakia and whose governments have also been accompanied by several scandals and dubious privatisations of state property decided to resign after his party received only 0.93 percent of the vote in the March 10 election, the Hospodárske Noviny daily reported.
Ján Kovarčík, a member of the party’s presidium, told the daily that Mečiar took the responsibility for the poor election result and stated that he will not run for the chair again.
“He is disappointed by the attitude of voters towards him as well as HZDS,” said Kovarčík, as quoted by Hospodárske Noviny.
The party will try to pick a new leader by the beginning of summer. While Kovarčík hopes that the new chair will help restore the support of voters, political scientist Ján Baránek believes it is too late for any kind of comeback.
“They do not have faces, charismatic leaders, carriers of ideas,” Baránek told Hospodárske Noviny.
Source: Hospodárske Noviny
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
