Lajcak Decides to Remain in Post of Foreign Affairs Minister
Bratislava, December 7 (TASR) – Foreign and European Affairs Minister Miroslav Lajcak (a Smer-SD nominee) has decided to remain in office, TASR learnt on Friday from the minister’s statement.
Lajcak was persuaded by guarantees from Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini (Smer-SD) and Smer-SD chair Robert Fico concerning Slovakia’s foreign policy. He’ll take the necessary steps in the coming days.
The minister wondered whether it made sense to stay in office, as over the past few days “we’ve heard voices – even in Parliament – that have been pushing for isolation instead of cooperation and that have been questioning our membership of the EU and NATO”. That’s why he spoke to Pellegrini and Fico. “I told both of them that I can perform my role only if our foreign policy continues to observe the Government Manifesto consistently, if the coalition partners respect the coalition agreement, with part of this respect including respect for the division of responsibility for individual ministries in the Government,” said Lajcak.
Lajcak went on to say that he received clear guarantees from both of them. “Guarantees that the Government Manifesto is valid and that no action is taken and accepted that would cast doubt on the basic pillars of our foreign policy, for which I’m responsible as a minister. I accept these guarantees with full gravity. Only under these circumstances does it make sense for me to continue,” said Lajcak.
In this situation and in order not to stretch the current situation and not burden the Slovak political and media space with it, he announced that he’s made a “decision to continue to carry out the mandate of foreign and European affairs minister”. “And in this spirit, I’ll take the necessary steps in the near future,” he added.