Matovic: I Don't Know for How Much Longer Coalition Will Be Able to Work Like This
Bratislava, November 13 (TASR) – Prime Minister Igor Matovic (OLaNO) stated on Friday on his Facebook account that he can’t tell for how much longer the coalition will be able to work together, remarking that Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) is the only coalition party that is deliberately undermining the coalition.
Matovic’s post was a reaction to SaS chief and Economy Minister Richard Sulik, who recently stated that he doesn’t like Matovic’s idea to carry out community testing for COVID-19 in the country.
“I don’t know how much longer the coalition will work together because a coalition that has been tasked with cleansing the country in and out and that has to make extraordinarily difficult decisions during a pandemic must pull on the same rope and refrain from such awkward and deliberate acts that undermine it. Three coalition parties refrain from this, but SaS has done it repeatedly,” wrote Matovic, adding that he hopes Sulik will “finally” learn to pull together with OLaNO, We Are Family and For the People.
The premier told the media before the start of Friday session of the pandemic committee that he wants SaS to stay in the coalition and that he doesn’t intend to dismiss Sulik, explaining that he only wants him to “straighten up”.
Matovic also stated on Facebook that Sulik has “sabotaged” the plan for countrywide community testing and as a result he’s also sabotaged nationwide re-opening of businesses and holdings that would take part in community testing. “How am I supposed to persuade people into taking part in community testing if a key coalition partner says that it’s stupid?,” Matovic asked journalists.
The prime minister reiterated that his public call on Sulik still stands. If Sulik comes up by Sunday with a plan on how to scrunch down the 7-day coronavirus running average below 500 daily positive cases by November 30, Matovic will leave him entirely in charge of the fight against COVID-19.
Sulik on Wednesday lambasted the Government’s decision to prolong the state of emergency and proposals that have recently followed countrywide testing for coronavirus. “The whole of Slovakia didn’t put up with mass testing because it’s obsessed with picking its nose, but because it believed the promise that better times would follow the testing,” stated Sulik on Facebook. According to him, instead of the promised alleviation of anti-coronavirus measures and more freedom, Slovaks have been rewarded with a prolonged state of emergency and Matovic’s proposal that culinary holdings, fitness centres, churches, sports facilities, schools and other businesses that have been hard hit by the virus should organise another round(s) of mass testing on their own premises, which in turn would grant them permission to open under specific conditions.
