Coalition Praises Balanced Budget for 2019, Its Priorities Fully Met

Coalition Praises Balanced Budget for 2019, Its Priorities Fully Met

Bratislava, December 5 (TASR) – The 2019 budget husbands public finances in a rather responsible fashion, yet on the other hand it’s able to meet all the priorities of the individual political parties that form the governing coalition, stressed Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini (Smer-SD) after the budget draft was approved by Parliament on Wednesday.

Pellegrini reiterated that Parliament has greenlighted the first balanced budget in the history of the modern Slovakia. “It’s an important watershed for the Slovak Republic,” he stated at a press conference.

The prime minister pointed out that Slovakia has already exceeded projected plans twice in a row, so there are great odds of the 2019 budget faring even better in reality than expected.

Next year’s budget makes it likely that living standards in Slovakia will improve significantly, he added. “And that poses a serious signal to other eurozone members that Slovakia is a country that does its homework and keeps its public finances under full control. On the other hand, it’s a good signal for people that it’s a country and governing coalition that adopts measures to the benefit of the public,” claimed Pellegrini.

Parliamentary Chair and Slovak National Party (SNS) leader Andrej Danko added that from the perspective of the ministries over which SNS bears political responsibility, each of the ministers is happy with the budget.

According to Smer-SD chair Robert Fico, the passing of the 2019 budget is an extremely important financial as well as political act. “It attests to the shape that the governing coalition is in. It shows that we’re capable of arriving at agreement on goals that some might have never even dreamed of in the past,” he said.

This sentiment was echoed by Most-Hid chair Bela Bugar, who praised the fact that his party was part of a process that led to the first ever balanced state budget. Despite the budget being balanced, the coalition managed to pass several measures such as public and state administration salary hikes and the priorities of individual coalition parties. “Despite the budget being balanced, we see in this budget everything we thought we wanted to realise next year,” claimed Bugar.

Finance Minister Peter Kazimir (Smer-SD) added that he won’t conceal his pride and joy over the fact that Slovakia will have its first balanced budget. “For the first time ever, our feet won’t stick out from under that proverbial duvet of public finances. I’m really happy,” he claimed.