Ex-presidents Believe that Fascists Won't Win Election and Won't Form Gov't
Bratislava, January 17 (TASR) – At their New Year meeting with current President Zuzana Caputova on Friday, the former Slovak presidents said they believe that fascists won’t win the upcoming general election.
If LSNS eventually did win, ex-president Rudolf Schuster would task the party leader with forming the government only for decency, while ex-presidents Ivan Gasparovic and Andrej Kiska probably wouldn’t task him with that.
“Maybe I would give him that chance only for decency, but they definitely won’t form the government even if they win the election. This would be very bad for Slovakia,” said Schuster, recalling the situation when Vladimir Meciar won the election, but failed to form the government.
Schuster views the situation in Slovakia in connection with strengthening of extremist and anti-systemic powers as sad. He pointed to the fact that fascists also gain support in towns and villages where a lot of murders have been committed due to this regime. “I know how unobtrusively this regime began and how far things went,” stressed Schuster, pointing to victims of the regime and the Holocaust.
“I don’t think they will win the election, but they will gain a substantial percentage,” stated Gasparovic. He stressed a need to seek ways to establish communication that would be a problem neither in the domestic, nor in the foreign policy of Slovakia. “We can do nothing, but respect the will of citizens,” he added.
Gasparovic said it would be a tough decision for him whether to task the leader of this party with forming the government or not. “I probably wouldn’t task him. The question would then arise whether there will be a party or parties able to form the coalition that would have a majority in the parliament. I think it will be quite difficult following this election,” stated Gasparovic.
Kiska believes that [Marian] Kotleba’s party won’t win the election. Asked about whether he would task Kotleba with forming the government, Kiska said there are certain legal practices in Slovakia when the president entrusts the election winner with this task. However, if fascists eventually win the election, he would probably meet representatives of other political parties and give ‘any normal democratic party a chance to form the government, but definitely not fascists’.
