Slovak News Back to the news
Fico: Kalinak Would Be Good Smer Chairman
Sunday 06 December 2009 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, December 6 (TASR) - Smer-SD vice-chair and Interior Minister Robert Kalinak would be a good party chairman, said Smer leader Robert Fico at a ceremonial convention in Bratislava on Sunday to mark the 10th anniversary of the party's formation.
Fico had been asked whether his vice-chairs can imagine replacing him as party chairman.
"When you happen to be a premier and try to do your job at 100 percent, you have no time for internal party life. We should take this fact into consideration, but no sooner than after we win the parliamentary elections and secure the right to form the government," said Fico.
As for co-operation with other parliamentary parties, Fico believes that Smer, SDKU-DS, KDH, LS-HZDS and SNS will all make it into parliament after the upcoming elections. He can't predict the fate of the ethnic-Hungarian SMK party, which has seen a split in its ranks with the formation of Most-Hid.
"SDKU-DS, KDH and SMK are rightist parties, and neither LS-HZDS nor SNS have anything to do with social democracy. So, we can't say who we want to form a government with. We need to find some partners, because nobody will win the elections decisively enough to form a government on their own," said Fico.
"Tell me, what's the difference between SNS and SDKU-DS? Or the difference between LS-HZDS and SDKU-DS? SMK and Most-Hid? None. We're waiting for people to make their choice (in the elections) and decide then," said Fico about the programmes of the other political parties.
He added that Smer-SD won't exclude anyone from post-election discussions, as every party that is legitimate has the right to take part in such talks.
Asked whether he has enjoyed the current government configuration, Fico said that Smer isn't complaining because the incumbent Coalition has "enabled the party to implement its Manifesto in a dominant way".
All rights reserved. Any publishing or further dissemination of press releases and photographs from TASR's resources without TASR's prior written approval constitutes a violation of the Copyrights Act.
