Fico: Smer-SD Slate Leader Hasn't Been Decided Yet

Bratislava, September 6 (TASR) – The leader of the Smer-SD slate for the 2020 parliamentary election has not been decided, Smer-SD Chairman Robert Fico said on TV Pravda on Friday.

Fico said that Smer-SD wants to win the parliamentary election and also form a government. “If Smer-SD should benefit from the fact that we’ll look at the slate differently than traditionally, I fully support it, I have absolutely no problem with it. But so far, the party presidium hasn’t discussed it yet, no decisions have been adopted,” he stated. Smer-SD chief says he is not the kind of a leader who sets up a party, and also buries it. He noted, however, that he always uses the political feeling of the party leader. “The slate is suggested by the party chairman and is decided by the presidium”.

Fico also responded to the criticism that his video on a social network was in favour of the lawfully convicted former MP for the far-right LSNS party Milan Mazurek. However, the Smer-SD chairman claims that this was not the case. “I’m not at all concerned about Mr. Mazurek, who has said much more serious things than what he said and for what he was convicted by the Supreme Court,” he said. “I mean hypocrisy. And the hypocrisy is in the fact that when you talk in lobbies, when you sit in the family and talk to anyone about the Roma issue in Slovakia, that it is a serious social problem, you listen to the most radical statements. And then suddenly the camera turns on, the red light and people lose their sense of courage and opinions and are hypocritical,” stated Fico. He thinks that such a judgement will only increase the support for the extremists. He also commented on possible co-operation with LSNS, pointing out that Smer-SD is clearly an anti-fascist-oriented party.