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Meciar: Smer-SD Doesn't Have Safe Place in Next Government Either
Sunday 21 March 2010 Zoom in | Print page
(STV, March 21, O pat minut dvanast)
LS-HZDS head Vladimir Meciar thinks that since the crisis is not over yet – despite claims from some optimists – a coalition featuring his party and Smer-SD would be the best combination for Slovakia, he said on the Slovak Television's (STV) politics programme 'O pat minut dvanast' (5 Minutes to Twelve) on Sunday.
According to Meciar, not even Smer-SD has a safe seat in the next Government (after the June Parliamentary elections). "Everything can be different, Meciar explained. He said that despite Smer-SD's popularity and excellent marketing policy, a low turnout could hurt their chances.
Head of the non-parliamentary party Most-Hid Bela Bugar, also on the show, said that his party prefers the creation of a centre-right coalition after the elections. "No way can we imagine to go head-over-heels to a government that will not be able to fulfil our expectations," he said. Bugar however did not rule out co-operation with Smer-SD after the elections.
Bugar explained that Most-Hid "dares" to obtain 8 percent (5 percent is required to enter Parliament) in the election, the internal structures of the party must wake up, however. He said the party's electorate are not only ethnic-Hungarians, the surveys show that about 30 percent of prospective Most-Hid voters are Slovaks. He thinks the support could be negatively influenced by hassles with ethnic-Hungarian SMK (which Bugar, along with three other MPs left last year), therefore his party will not go to confrontations with SMK, since has cost them support before.
The politicians also discussed Hungarian President Laszlo Solyom's recent statements that Slovak, Serbian and Romanian citizens of ethnic-Hungarian nationality should learn Slovak, for example, only as a second language. According to Meciar it is not acceptable for the Hungarian head of state to intervene in Slovakia's internal matters. "It's important for us that these manifestations are halted in a moderate way, so that the ethnic minorities don't become hostages, so that it is not transferred to internal politics," said Meciar.
Bugar thinks that Solyom did not express himself very tactfully, even if he might have been right as far as the content of his statement is concerned. "It was not an attack, it was politician's point of view, which was quite unfortunate," thinks Bugar.
Bugar considers Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico's stance towards the Patriot Act to be a political calculation. Commenting on Slovak President Ivan Gasparovic's decision not to sign the Act, Bugar, too, said that Gasparovic is "independent from everybody but Smer-SD".
According to Meciar, the Act is not patriotic at all, since it only amends the use of certain symbols.
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