Kiska Introduces His 'For the People' Party
Banska Bystrica, June 17 (TASR) – Now ex-president Andrej Kiska on Monday officially introduced his new political party, which will be called “For the People”.
The preparatory committee of his new party so far consists of former MEP Jana Zitnanska, ex-spokesperson of the For a Decent Slovakia initiative Juraj Seliga, former state secretary Maria Kolikova and Michal Luciak, who was Kiska’s adviser for internal politics in the presidential palace. The ranks of the party will also be joined by various mayors from across Slovakia, for example, Marek Hattas from Nitra, Miroslav Kollar from Hlohovec (Trnava region), Lenka Balkovicova from Zvolen and Alexandra Pivkova from Lucenec (Banska Bystrica region).
“We need to get capable and honest people into politics, that’s the cornerstone. As of today the party of Andrej Kiska is no more, however, the For the People party emerges. It’ll be a big, nation-wide party, anchored in the regions with all structures. So far we’ve registered 30,000 supporters and in the upcoming days they will all receive an offer to become members of the party,” stated Kiska.
A comprehensive party programme will be introduced in September. “Already today our team contains 72 top experts who want to help us to create the programme to take the responsibility for the country and manage it. They have prepared 125 programme theses, concrete suggestions. I’m glad that we also have the help of former prime minister Iveta Radicova [2010-12], whose government was undoubtedly the best in the past ten years,” noted Kiska.
“We want to address people who are convinced that everyone in Slovakia must be equal. Our aim is to also provide an alternative to those who don’t consider the current opposition as an option,” stated Kiska. “We want to return Slovakia back to the people,” said the ex-president.
Kiska is of the opinion that the 2020 general election will be a great challenge. “Smer-SD is ready to govern with [head of the far-right People’s Party Our Slovakia/LSNS Marian] Kotleba and it’ll be also ready to govern with [unsuccessful presidential candidate Stefan] Harabin. Let’s not forget that Fico already managed this country with such people as [Vladimir] Meciar and [Jan] Slota [2006-10]. They want to rule and they will do their utmost to achieve it. There’s a threat that we’ll witness the most expensive election campaign we’ve ever seen as the governing parties will distribute hundreds of millions of euros via various packages…” he noted.
The basic priorities of the party are high quality and accessible health care, and legal equality for everyone. “We can’t have thugs mocking us for years, it can’t be that the mob in eastern Slovakia, which the Government has known about for years, was dealt with only after two young people were murdered,” he added.
Kiska clarified that For the People is ready to hold talks on co-operation with the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH), Freedom and Solidarity (SaS), OLaNO, and the Progressive Slovakia (PS)-Together coalition.
