Fico: Smer-SD Most Successful Political Project in Slovakia

Martin, December 9 (TASR) – The Smer-SD party, founded as Smer (Direction) in 1999, is the single most successful political project in Slovakia’s modern history and it’s ready to win for the fifth time a general election (scheduled for 2020), Prime Minister and party leader Robert Fico said at a party congress in Martin (Zilina region) on Saturday.

“It isn’t going to be easy to win the election, as we’re witnessing a surge of destructive populism and a new style in politics – managerialism. Some people believe that state can be governed like a business company, but this isn’t true. It isn’t going to be easy also because Smer-SD is the centre of attention by the Opposition and the media. They’re looking closely at everything we’re doing, each of us is being supervised. Nonetheless, I believe that this goal is achievable even in this atmosphere, although it’s going to be tough,” said Fico.

According to the prime minister, Smer should forget about hoping to win over the ‘Bratislava cafe’, businessmen, self-employed and pensioners all at the same time. “We want to appeal to voters with social feeling,” said Fico.

At the same time Fico pointed out that Smer needs to be ready for broad coalitions and it must have the word ‘compromise’ in its vocabulary.

“Cooperation with other parties in the future will only be possible if they have clear pro-European orientation. We can’t yield here. We’re talking about the EU’s core; integration is a good fit for us,” said Fico.

Meanwhile, the prime minister stressed that Smer-SD won’t be a Brussel-like or international social democratic party, but a Slovak one with a good dose of Slovak specifics.

“The fact that we have our own specifics doesn’t mean that we can’t be social democrats. We must be grounded on humanism, equality, freedom and mainly solidarity,” added Fico.