Bugar: We Shouldn't Even Sit at One Table with Extremists

Bratislava, January 5 (TASR) – A good recipe for dealing with extremists in Parliament would be if parliamentary parties didn’t sit with them at one table at all, said Most-Hid leader Bela Bugar in an interview with TASR on Thursday, giving Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party leader Richard Sulik as an example of someone who hasn’t followed this principle.

Bugar stressed that his party has never striven for any agreements with Marian Kotleba’s far-right People’s Party Our Slovakia (LSNS).

Meanwhile, Justice Minister Lucia Zitnanska (Most-Hid) is taking specific steps to fight extremists. “We’ve adopted laws [an anti-extremist package, ed. note],” said Bugar, who also pointed to the adoption of a brochure of symbols that contradict democratic principles.

Asked whether this is enough to prevent support for extremists from growing, Bugar said that the authorities should also act in line with the anti-extremist law. “It’s impossible if a court rules that a man who inclines to fascism could have said what he said based on the freedom of speech. There must be some constraint,” stated Bugar.

Bugar also sees a problem in the fact that politicians are arguing in the House, while LSNS legislators remain silent before standing up with a purpose-made speech pointing to such quarrelling. Bugar admitted that both Opposition and coalition MPs allow them to use such tactics. “There are mistakes on one side as well as on the other. However, if you label anything as corruption, if the Opposition wants to make a political problem out of anything, those appearing with the simplest solutions will always win,” he said.