Pellegrini: If Smer Forms Future Gov't, I'd Like to Be Prime Minister
Banska Bystrica, February 7 (TASR) – In case Smer-SD wins the upcoming parliamentary election and forms the future government, I see myself in the post of prime minister again, Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini, who serves also as Smer-SD election leader, stated in his presentation on the final stage of Smer-SD campaign on Friday.
The presentation was held at the Museum of Slovak National Uprising in Banska Bystrica. “I’m not standing here as a person with nothing better to do than dig in the dirt of the past all day long and leak it to public. I’m standing here as a person with real experience from various state posts, who knows how it is to stand at the helm of the state and Government,” claimed Pellegrini.
In his speech, he distanced himself from all deniers of Slovak history. “Smer-SD can never cooperate with someone who denies events of the [1944-45] Slovak National Uprising, who denies the Holocaust and who ridicules victims of the burnt out villages,” said the Prime Minister.
Furthermore, Smer-SD will never sit down around the negotiating table with representatives of parties that either intimate or overtly declare an intent to scrap social measures introduced by Smer-SD.
Pellegrini also touched on “mistakes” the party had been forced to come to terms with recently, but pointed out that people responsible for those mistakes are no longer party members or candidates on the election slate.
The Prime Minister also broached the initiative, sponsored by OLaNO leader Igor Matovic, to draft the future government manifesto based on a public survey. “Half of the government sessions under my leadership were held in eastern Slovakia and the south of central Slovakia. Hence, we’re well aware of what troubles people and what we must help them with, there’s no need for any survey,” he added.