Coalition Parties to Liaise More Closely, Intending to March On
Bratislava, February 8 (TASR) – The leaders of the coalition parties – Smer-SD, the Slovak National Party (SNS) and Most-Hid – will meet and communicate with each other more often, said Prime Minister and Smer chairman Robert Fico after the Coalition Council session on Wednesday.
The three leaders – Fico plus SNS chairman Andrej Danko and Most-Hid head Bela Bugar – took stock of the almost 12 months since the coalition came into being.
“It will soon be a year since this coalition was formed, and I believe that the coalition has been delivering on its commitments in the Government Manifesto. The coalition handled the Presidency [of the Council of the European Union] well, it’s doing its best in order to make sure that Slovakia does as well as possible. Slovakia is moving in the right direction,” said the premier.
“We expressed respect for the existence of this coalition and for commitments arising from the Government Manifesto. We’re espousing loyalty to what we signed up to in 2016. There’s no other way for Slovakia, it needs political stability and standard political approaches. This can only be guaranteed by the joint work of Smer, SNS and Most-Hid,” said Fico.
Fico went on to point to an agreement between the three parties on more sophisticated forms of collaboration. “We’ll be substantially more up to date on actions of the ministries that don’t fall within the purview of a particular coalition party. We’ve agreed, for example, to hold a thematic Coalition Council session next Tuesday to discuss the energy sector,” said Fico.
Echoing this, Danko said that the parties will liaise with each other more closely, including at expert level. “We’ve learnt our lesson, we need to meet more often. The meeting of the Coalition Council today [Wednesday] has pushed us forward, made a lot of things clearer. We want to carry on,” he said. “We’re people made of flesh and bone … I myself continue to learn,” he added.
Turning to the Opposition, Danko said that it is, in fact, non-existent. “There are only hysterics and loudmouths. The only way to work to the benefit of people is to have a standard party and to present solutions,” he stated.
Bugar weighed in by saying that the outcome of the meeting on Wednesday showed that there’s no state of crisis within the coalition. “Difficulties may arise every now and then, but what matters is to observe what’s on paper. We held a very open discussion on how to continue to work together in a way that prevents imbalance. Expert Coalition Council sessions will be held to discuss expert issues, making sure that everybody gets detailed information. The Coalition Council has determined our way of working ahead together,” said Bugar.
