OLaNO: Pellegrini Erred, Kiska Should Have Fixed Mistake

Bratislava, June 6 (TASR) – Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini (Smer-SD) has erred when it comes to Slovakia’s foreign-political orientation and Andrej Kiska should have fixed it, opposition OLaNO MPs Jan Budaj and Jaroslav Nad told a news conference on Thursday in reaction to celebrations of the 75th anniversary of the Normandy landings at which Slovakia was represented by Deputy Prime Minister Richard Rasi (Smer-SD).

“It was Pellegrini first and foremost who made a mistake. However, when he had already made such a huge mistake, the president should have corrected it,” stated Nad, adding that this will have an impact on Slovakia’s reputation abroad. He noted that Pellegrini was among representatives of 16 countries who were invited to the celebrations and that he initially said that he would attend. “However, he subsequently obtained a term from [Russian President Vladimir] Putin [to visit Russia], which is also a fact, and this fact was intentional,” stressed Nad.

Budaj noted that the Slovak Parliament wasn’t represented at celebrations of the 30th anniversary of the end of totalitarianism in Poland, either. According to Budaj, the Polish Sejm and Senate invited the Slovak Parliament to mark the beginning of parliamentary systems in eastern Europe.

“It should have been a gesture and strong expression of respect for parliamentary systems. It’s a big disappointment for me that [Parliamentary Chairman Andrej] Danko failed to understand this,” stated Budaj, adding that representatives of Slovakia have sent out a signal “as if we were entering a Eurasian Union”. He also lambasted Danko’s praise of the Government in Belarus.