Fico Appeals to President to Call on Gov't to Step Down and Amend Constitution

Bratislava, December 3 (TASR) – Leader of the opposition Smer-SD party and former prime minister Robert Fico on Friday appealed to President Zuzana Caputova to call on the Government to resign and to amend the Constitution, insisting on the need for an early election.

Fico pointed out that the head of state has already asked Prime Minister Eduard Heger (OLaNO) to assume responsibility, but Fico called her gesture untrustworthy and designed to save her own reputation.

“If you want to give people a Christmas present and encourage them at least a little, call on the Government to step down and adopt the necessary constitutional change so that a snap parliamentary election can take place immediately,” said Fico, adding that Caputova is more responsible than Heger for the current state of Slovakia. He accused her of supporting the Government and blamed her for appointing Igor Matovic (OLaNO) first as prime minister and later as finance minister.

Fico also drew attention to the signatures collected on the petition for a referendum on an early election. He has repeatedly called on Caputova to be the president of everyone and not to ignore the public’s interest in an early election. He declared that Smer-SD will continue to “carry out its mission” and be a consistent democratic left-wing opposition party “protecting democracy, welfare and the rule of law”.

The president on Thursday (December 2) asked the premier to assume responsibility and make progress towards resolving the problems that have led to poor results in combating the novel coronavirus pandemic and chaos in adopting reforms. She pointed to intra-coalition disputes in connection with several measures as well as the fact that Slovakia has been the worst country in the world for the second consecutive week in terms of the number of new infections per capita.