Bugar on Potential Presidential Candidacy; Presents New Party Members

Bratislava, May 29 (TASR) – At a news conference presenting new Most-Hid members on Tuesday, party leader Bela Bugar said that he’ll announce whether he’ll run for the post of Slovak president or not following the party congress due to be held on June 9.

“We’ll hold the Republican Council, as well as the congress next week. The issue will be decided at the congress. Even if I knew the result already, I wouldn’t tell you,” Bugar told journalists.

Bugar also presented new members of the junior coalition party. These are Parliamentary Vice-chair and Martin (Zilina region) mayor Andrej Hrnciar, MP and Ziar nad Hronom (Banska Bystrica region) mayor Peter Antal, Culture Ministry State Secretary Konrad Rigo and Nitra region vice-governor Igor Eder. MP and head of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee Katarina Csefalvayova recently joined the party as well.

“We were deciding where to go following the split of the Siet (Network) party. We viewed the Most-Hid caucus as closest to us in terms of values. I joined the party today, which was a logical and natural culmination of my two years of work in the caucus,” said Hrnciar, adding that other sources of motivation were party leader Bela Bugar and the pro-western and pro-European orientation of the party.

Antal claimed that Most-Hid gave him space to transform his ideas into legislative drafts. “These help not only municipalities, but also the people living in them. Most-Hid actually works as a standard political party with well-functioning structures. Therefore, I want to help Most-Hid in Slovak localities, to be more active there,” stated Antal.

Hrnciar was a Most-Hid member in the past, but left it to co-found Siet (Network), which he later quit, switching to the Most-Hid caucus. Antal got into Parliament as a substitute for Gabriel Csicsai (Most-Hid) who has become state secretary at the Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry.