Pellegrini: We'll Hold Talks with Anyone Who Invites Us

       Bratislava, October 1 (TASR) - The Voice-SD party will hold talks on post-election cooperation with anyone who invites it, its leader Peter Pellegrini told the media on Sunday.
       He emphasised that "gluing" parties together "so that it gives numbers" is unstable in the long term. The party sets the priorities of its programme as conditions [for post-election cooperation].
       "We'll respect customary rules. We'll wait to see who is tasked with forming the government. We will negotiate with anyone who invites us to do so, that's normal and legitimate. How the negotiations turn out is another matter. We'll have to consult, we'll hold a meeting of the presidium, a closer leadership. It's a long way to go, it would be very premature to conclude coalitions at the moment," stated Pellegrini.
       Pellegrini said that no one has contacted him yet. If things go calmly and without panic, he thinks that the negotiations might start on Monday (October 2). "We'll also have to think of the quality of the potential coalition, so that it does not fall apart after a year and a half, as we saw before," he said.
       Pellegrini thinks that posts can be divided so that the two ex-premiers don't have to sit together in the same government, but each can hold a dignified constitutional post, for example, the post of parliamentary chair. "Only negotiations will show that," he said in connection with distribution of posts.
       The Voice-SD chief didn't want to announce the party's conditions via the media. However, he finds it important to achieve a programme intersection. "We went into the election with the policy of a strong state, its greater control of strategic energy companies, intervention in food price policy, a full thirteenth pension for seniors, a big national plan to eliminate gaps between regions and investments in individual parts of Slovakia," said Pellegrini.