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President's Speech Provokes Contradictory Opinions
Friday 01 January 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, January 1 (TASR) - Politicians differ in their views of President Ivan Gasparovic's New Year's speech; some praising his "humaneness," but others bemoaning the head of state's lack of ideas and vision for the New Year, TASR has learnt in a survey.
"This year's speech by the president was largely focused on the hierarchy of values and morale of today's civilisation. I highly value this focus although I missed an emphasis on the fact that apart from being a celebration of the advent of New Year, January 1 is a celebration of the founding of an independent Slovakia as well. Therefore more attention should be paid to this in the New Year speech as this address should also be a major tool of education in patriotism," said co-ruling LS-HZDS lawmaker Katarina Tothova.
The strongest ruling party Smer-SD hailed the president's singling-out of the introduction of the euro, the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty, motorway construction, as well as the Government's drive towards self-sufficiency; all at a time of an unrelenting economic crisis raging around the world. "Just like the president we are concerned about the spiritual and humane factor fading out of our day-to-day life," said a Smer spokesperson. Her party, she said, is confident that Slovaks can be rightly proud of their accomplishments in recent years.
Co-ruling SNS vice-chair Anna Belousovova praised the president's speech as being one of both the head of state and a humane one with feelings. She is confident that Gasparovic, with his sincere words, has reached the many Slovaks for whom the speech was intended. She further stated that it greatly appealed to her that the president didn't forget about spiritual values in this overly materialistic world. According to her, the call for solidarity will also have had an effect on people. "Slovakia has emerged relatively well from last year precisely because of this Government's great emphasis on solidarity and assistance for the poorest," she said.
Opposition politicians weren't so impressed, however. "I judge his New Year speech as simply focusing on singling out certain values but failing to name solutions for kickstarting Slovakia so that we won't only be talking about such values but also living them out," said SDKU-DS caucus leader Stanislav Janis, arguing that the president subtly avoided an assessment of politics and the presentation of a political vision for 2010.
SMK caucus chief Guyla Bardos described the speech as routine. "It was speech of an old president without fresh ideas," he said, adding that people were denied a statesmanlike speech featuring fundamental ideas.
Christian Democrat (KDH) chairman Jan Figel commended the president's appeal for its stress on solidarity. "I'm convinced that it is solidarity and justice, of all things, that are absent most of all in Slovakia," he said. KDH is striving to restore these two vital phenomena in society, said Figel, noting that Gasparovic mentioned problems such as high unemployment, a crisis of the family, a weak education system as well as the fact that money has shunted interpersonal relations to the sidelines.
Figel was also critical, however. "It irks me that the president in his speech avoided wide-ranging corruption, cronyism and the scandals of the current Government, which harm the moral development of society and impoverish the country yet further during a crisis," he added.
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