Demes: Fico Was Wrong about Protests, He's Overestimating Me
Bratislava, May 26 (TASR) – Prime Minister Robert Fico is evaluating the protests by teachers that took place ahead of the March general election in a peculiar and incorrect manner, civil activist Pavol Demes told TASR on Thursday in reaction to his name being mentioned by Fico in connection with the protests.
Demes said that civil initiative ‘ENOUGH!’, of which he was a representative, wasn’t behind the teachers’ protests. “The prime minister is wrong and is overestimating me,” he said. Demes stressed that the initiative aimed in a transparent manner and through a broad dialogue to point to the alarming situation in the Slovak education sector in the run up to the general election.
Meanwhile, Demes declared that he isn’t interested in waging a media war with the prime minister, and he’d like a personal meeting with Fico in order to avoid disputes. “A confrontational attitude between the Government and civil society would harm Slovakia, which will preside over the Council of the European Union soon,” he said in this context.
Fico mentioned Demes in an interview with TASR earlier this week when evaluating the situation ahead the general election. He said that the education sector was a heavily politicised issue. “Just take a look at who was behind those teachers. It was enough for me to see Mr. Demes there, and everything was clear to me. I didn’t have to think at all about whether these were trade unionists or someone else,” said Fico in the interview.
