Kiska Praises Attitudes of Klus and Micev and Their Support for Lunter
Bratislava, October 10 (TASR) – President Andrej Kiska on Tuesday met Martin Klus and Stanislav Micev, who have decided to withdraw their candidacies for the post of Banska Bystrica regional governor and endorse the more popular candidate Jan Lunter (Independent) instead, TASR learnt on the same day.
[Lunter is said to have the best chance of defeating incumbent governor Marian Kotleba of the far-right People’s Party Our Slovakia. – ed. note]
“I received Mr. Klus and Mr. Micev today to praise their attitudes and decision to support the strongest democratic candidate in the regional elections in Banska Bystrica. I also appreciate the attitude of the governing parties, which have supported Mr. Lunter, as well as other political parties that are endorsing him,” said Kiska.
The president reiterated that an evil in green T-shirts is spreading over Slovakia, hiding behind God and the nation and striving to turn the country into a xenophobic and nationalist state. And this doesn’t concern only a group of young hooligans with stupid opinions, but a “well-organised, professional and very dangerous political power,” stressed Kiska.
Evil can win when good people do nothing, stated the president, calling on the public not to be indolent and not to let candidates seeking to spread evil in Banska Bystrica or Nitra win. The public should realise that hundreds of candidates representing this evil can be found on election slates in all eight regions of Slovakia.
Following his meeting with the president, Klus said that the two informed Kiska about poll results and about the risk stemming from them. “Chiefly as far as hidden voters and those who’ll stay home are concerned,” said Klus. Therefore, he’s determined to keep urging supporters of his coalition to lend their votes to the candidate in whose favour he’s withdrawn his bid.
Micev doesn’t think that the threat of Marian Kotleba’s election can be shrugged off. In his opinion, Kotleba has many secret voters who don’t admit that they would vote for him in polls. A recent poll ordered jointly by five candidates showed 25-percent voter support for Lunter, 22-percent support for Kotleba and 10-11 percent support each for Micev and Klus. Micev sees a risk in the fact that the difference between the top two candidates in the poll is negligible.
Klus also informed the president about the next poll, which is due to take place this week. This should no longer include the names of Klus and Micev. “These will be much more relevant figures,” he said.
Klus was running for the post of Banska Bystrica regional governor for a coalition featuring SaS, OLaNO, NOVA, KDH and OKS. He gave up his candidacy on October 3. Micev (Independent) withdrew his bid on October 5. Both pulled out in favour of Lunter, who has also been endorsed by the parties of the governing coalition.
