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Caplovic: Matovic’s Plans Confirm Smer-SD Claims of 6-party Coalition
Wednesday 29 December 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, December 29 (TASR) – The statements of leader of Freedom and Solidarity's (SaS) faction called 'Ordinary People' (OL) Igor Matovic concerning his plans to set up a new party in the first quarter of 2011 confirms the words of opposition Smer-SD that the current centre-right Government does not consist of four but of six political parties, said Smer-SD vice-chair Dusan Caplovic on Wednesday.
Matovic announced on Tuesday that the setting up of a new party is a move designed to create scope for independent candidates. "This is how we want to laugh in the face of the system based on political parties," he said.
Matovic’s statements evoked ambiguous reactions within the Coalition.
SDKU-DS spokesman Michal Lukac said his party considers this issue to be an internal SaS matter. "We believe that the number of MPs supporting the governing coalition will stay the same," he said.
Prime Minister Iveta Radicova (SDKU-DS) made a similar statement that indicated there is nothing to comment on, since this is an intra-party development.
Christian Democrat (KDH) vice-chair Pavol Abrhan is more critical. He thinks it is hard to assess Matovic’s statements, since he already retracted several of his statement in the past. "Let’s wait and see what happens. In any case, we expect the coalition partners (SaS) to guarantee 22 votes for the coalition," he said. {The most notable retraction came shortly after the election, when Matevic claimed he had been offered a substantial amount of money to withdraw OL's support for the Government and thereby bring it down. After Sulik went to the police about the matter, Matovic said it was all in jest - ed. note}.
Most-Hid chairman Bela Bugar labeled Matovic’s proclamation as 'to be expected'. He describes the move as the materialisation of an agreement between SaS and the four MPs from Ordinary People that was made after the parliamentary elections in June. "Of course we assume that this will not be at the expense of the Government, or at the expense of Government’s Manifesto," he stated, adding that he hopes that Matovic does not expect OL to join the Coalition Council.
SaS leader and Parliamentary Chairman Richard Sulik told TASR on Wednesday that he has not changed his stance towards this issue, and he will not express any reservations towards emerging of a new political party within the governing Coalition. "We had an agreement until the end of the year ... when he (Matovic) now decides, then it is his decision and it is in accordance with our agreements," said Sulik. He compared the position of Matovic’s future party to the position of Civic Conservative Party (OKS) within Most-Hid. Bugar, as Most-Hid’s chairman, did not want to comment on Sulik’s comparison.
Matovic explained his decision with the goal to create scope for independent candidates in Parliament. Current legislative only allows for candidates to be elected through a party slate. If Matovic succeeds in amending this legislative, he says he will not create a new political party. "It’s very simple mathematics," he said on Tuesday. Currently, the idea of allowing people to run for election while not being on a party slate does not have much support.
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