Prochazka Will Run Again for Leader of Siet in September
Radoslav Prochazka would like to run for the post of the ruling coalition Siet (Network) party leader again, although the party under his leadership managed to gain a mere 5.6 percent of votes in the March 5 general election, TASR has learnt on Thursday.
There are people calling for his replacement, and most audibly in the regions. However, Prochazka claims he has not registered any such discontent.
Parliamentary and party vice-chairman Andrej Hrnciar is being mentioned as his potential successor. However, Hrnciar is not interested in this post.
Asked whether he will run for the party leadership at Siet’s congress set to take place on September 1, Prochazka said “probably yes.” He does not worry about whether he manages to gain his party mates’ confidence at the moment. “We’ll see. It’s not an agenda for me now. It is relatively a long time until the congress will be held. Now we are focusing on kicking off implementation of the Government Manifesto,” said Prochazka.
Siet’s Council of Regions will meet on Saturday (April 30) in Bratislava. However, it will not deal with personnel issues. “This is not the platform to address personnel matters,” stated Hrnciar, former Martin mayor until last month’s general election. Issues like the election campaign or the fate of the party will be on the agenda of the Council meeting. “We will also definitely explain the reasons why we have joined the Government,” he added.
Hrnciar rejected considerations on his candidacy as Siet leader. “I absolutely don’t think about it. I’m not interested in the party leadership,” Hrnciar told TASR. However, he has noticed dissatisfaction in regions. “There was a dissatisfaction over our decision to join the ruling coalition after the election. Nevertheless, I stand behind this decision, since it was the only possible solution,” conceded Hrnciar.
Siet, which through three defections lost its official party caucus (which calls for eight MPs and Siet has 7), is centre-right. The Interior Ministry has registered the party on June 12, 2014. The party’s founding congress was held on September 1, 2014 in Zilina. Despite barely making it into Parliament, Siet’s pre-election polls showed it to be the strongest centre-right party in the country and second only to Smer-SD overall.
Prochazka proffered his resignation to the leadership immediately following this election result. However, the leadership supported him in the post and Siet went on to join the ruling coalition with Smer-SD, the Slovak National Party (SNS) and Most-Hid.
