SaS Calls on Parties under Electability Threshold to Withdraw from Fight

Bratislava, September 21 (TASR) - Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) has called on the parties running in the election, which are below the electability threshold, to withdraw from the fight, SaS leader Richard Sulik drew attention to the fact that a large number of votes of democratic voters, which may be crucial in the formation of the government, may be lost.
       Sulik called on the parties with support below five percent to be responsible. If they decided to withdraw from the fight in favour of SaS, he declared his readiness to hold talks with them immediately after the election about the content of the manifesto or personnel nominations. He thus wants to avoid the formation of a government of Smer-SD, Voice-SD, Republic and the Slovak National Party (SNS), which he described as the worst scenario for Slovakia.
       "We call on the parties that don't have a chance to be in Parliament to withdraw from the political struggle and to support one of the democratic parties," stated Sulik, adding that it isn't about who will win the election, but about Smer-SD chairman Robert Fico not having 76 MPs. He described the Smer-SD leader as a threat to Slovakia, therefore, according to him, he mustn't form a government under any circumstances.
       The SaS leader called on the entities with support below five percent to be responsible. He especially appealed to the representatives of the Democrats to put their egos aside. Sulik wants not to lose any right-wing and democratic votes. According to him, converted to the number of seats in Parliament, there's a risk of losing six to eight MPs. He added that this increases the risk of forming a government of Smer-SD, Voice-SD, Republic and SNS, which, according to him, would make Slovakia a black hole in Europe.
       Sulik also noted that Voice-SD isn't a desirable partner for SaS. "It's a party that wants a strong state, while a strong state will just rob you of your taxes," he said, stressing that only the SaS congress can exclude parties from cooperation, which has so far been done in case of Smer-SD, LSNS and SNS.

The 'Democrats' party will humbly bid for the voters' trust, if it makes it to the government, it will be a professional, experienced and stable partner, the party said in a statement in response to the SaS call.
       "Colleagues from SaS, instead of calling for resignation, together with Progressive Slovakia and KDH, find courage and rule out cooperation with Voice. Let's together give hope to all Slovaks that a democratic government can be set up. It can also be done without Voice," stated the Democrats.
       They maintain that there is real hope for the emergence of a democratic government that will guarantee a foreign policy orientation towards the West, address problems in the health-care sector and not come up with cheap populism.