Pellegrini: Talk of Lockdown Meant to Scare Public and Push It to Wall

Bratislava, October 21 (TASR) – Threatening the public with a lockdown is an attempt to scare people, former prime minister and head of Voice-SD Peter Pellegrini stated on Wednesday, adding that the Government doesn’t know the answers to questions asked by the regions regarding the planned mass testing.

“This talk about a lockdown is an effort to scare the public and push it to the wall,” claimed Pellegrini, adding that Prime Minister Igor Matovic (OLaNO) has been managing the state in an “obey-or-be-punished” manner since the very beginning, viewing himself as “a sultan with unlimited power”.

In Pellegrini’s view, the purpose of mass testing shouldn’t be to force as many people as possible to take part. He conceded that the higher the turnout, the better the chance of identifying infected people, but he opined that Matovic views the operation as a referendum regarding his tenure in the post of prime minister, which is why the premier wants the highest possible turnout.

Meanwhile, Pellegrini’s ally in Voice-SD and MP Jan Ferencak stated that the Government’s talk of a lockdown indicates that it’s abandoning the plan of mass testing. According to him, this could be attributed to the fact that the Cabinet is unable to answer the regions’ questions regarding the testing. He claimed that no one has informed the district town of Kezmarok about the operation yet, for example. “The fact that the Government on Wednesday realised that it’s unrealistic to launch such mass testing in light of questions from the regions implies that it’s considering abandoning the idea,” he said. In his view, such testing can’t be carried out given the numbers of people who would need to be tested and the numbers of personnel required.