Members of 'Democratic Core' Leave SaS

Bratislava, October 9 (TASR) – More members of the so-called Democratic Core platform are leaving opposition’s Freedom and Solidarity, namely party vice-chair Lubomir Galko, MPs Jozef Rajtar, Miroslav Ivan, Vladimir Sloboda, Renata Kascakova, Radoslav Pavelka and party member Pavol Kubis, TASR learnt from their social network posts on Wednesday.

“I feel disappointment at bearing witness to the state in which the party I co-founded ten years ago is today. I joined politics to fight corruption and improve lives of people in Slovakia. I don’t see any room for me in SaS anymore to pursue these noble objectives,” wrote Galko.

Galko added that he’ll make the decision of whether or not to continue his political career in near future and all options are on the table.

In recent days, SaS was left also by MP and vice-chair Jana Kissova and former party caucus chair Natalia Blahova, the latter being stripped of her party membership at latest SaS congress.

These departures come in the wake of a rift between SaS chair Richard Sulik and vice-chair Lubomir Galko over the latter’s intentions to have Sulik replaced as party chairman. In early September, Sulik convened an extraordinary party congress and had his position reaffirmed in the vote for another four years, but this result was rejected by some party representatives who subsequently founded the Democratic Core platform. At the following nomination congress, party membership approved Sulik’s slate for 2020 parliamentary race, which didn’t include Galko and platform members.