Former Culture Minister Madaric Is Leaving Smer-SD and Coalition
Bratislava, October 25 (TASR) – MP and former culture minister Marek Madaric is leaving the Smer-SD party as well as the governing coalition, said Madaric’s MP assistant Jozef Bednar on Thursday, adding that Madaric will serve as an independent MP in Parliament.
“I don’t want to get me or my coalition colleagues in a situation that as a coalition member I have kept voting against government or coalition proposals. I don’t want to be part of the coalition in which a politician, who is following [Hungarian Premier Victor] Orban’s policy of weakening democracy and dismantling the EU as a model, is given the main word. As the Smer-SD party is part of this coalition, I decided to leave this political party,” said Madaric.
According to Smer-SD leader Robert Fico, Madaric’s decision to leave Smer-SD and the governing coalition doesn’t pose any surprise to party representatives. “He has left a long time ago and now just completed the formal act. He relinquished the post of Culture Minister and party vice-chairman and in many cases either didn’t vote [in unison] with the governing coalition or voted differently. We expected him to take this formal step. It has no impact on the functioning of the coalition, however, seeing as Marek Madaric either wasn’t present during votes or voted differently,” claimed Fico, who thanked Madaric for the co-operation and wished him best of luck in future endeavours.
Madaric has been in Smer-SD since 2000. He started as the party’s spokesman, head of the media and press department and in 2006 he was the head of the party’s electoral team. Until last year he was one of the party’s vice-chairs. He served as the culture minister between 2006-2010 and 2016-2018.
