Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) rejects the opposition’s claims that Slovakia is in bad shape. He claims that the assessment of the international rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) confirms the government’s responsible approach to public finances. He stated this at a Sunday press conference in response to the opposition parties’ evaluation of his two years in government.
“No one is perfect. Yes, we have many problems, but I refuse to throw dirt on SR like this without any reasons and especially in the name of the philosophy of harming, harming and harming, lying, lying and lying, and no one is bothered by the fact that behind all this there is often a question of total unpreparedness,” Fico said.
He denies the claims leader of the opposition Progressive Slovakia Michal Šimečka, already Slovenian “it drags down the entire competitiveness of the European Union (EU)”. “Is the minimum wage going up? Is the minimum wage going up. Are pension payments at risk? Are pensions being paid? Are they being paid,” he added. According to the Prime Minister, the assessments of the opposition and the media contradict the real picture of the country. “We have two worlds – the world of the opposition and anti-government media that talk about the collapse, and the world of international assessmentswhich confirm the stability of Slovakia,” he stated.
Fico also pointed out that Slovakia is facing proceedings by the European Commission (EC) for not transferring the new system of emission permits ETS2 into national legislation. He marked him as “nonsensical system” which, according to him, has negative effects on households and transport. “Previous governments voted for this nonsense and today we are facing infringement – that is, action by the EC for refusing to fully implement this system,” said Fico. He added that Slovakia is among the 15 EU member states that require a revision of the system.
The Prime Minister expressed his interest in convening a meeting of the countries of the Vyšehrad Four (V4), first at the level of ministers of foreign affairs, then at the level of prime ministers. It wants to re-open to “the maximum possible dynamics of the operation of the V4”. “I think that after the elections in the Czech Republic we will find many topics, where the four V4 countries will have the same positions, as it was a few years ago (…) We must return to the time when the V4 was an important regional organization that knew how to promote its interests within the European Union“, he added.
At the same time, the Prime Minister refused to has Slovakia joined any EU schemes for financing military aid to Ukraine. He claims that The Union plans to provide Kyiv with EUR 140 billion in the coming years, what he marked as “the biggest mistake the EU is making”. “As Prime Minister, I refuse that Slovakia participates in any financial scheme, the purpose of which is to help Ukraine manage the war and military expenses,” he emphasized.
The head of Slovak diplomacy, Juraj Blanár (Smer-SD), denied the opposition’s claims that Slovakia is isolated in foreign policy. He stated that the Govt in Brussels, it promotes specific national interests and gains the support of partners. “What kind of isolation? We made exceptions, for example, for the export of products from Russian oil to the Czech Republic, for spare parts or maintenance of our oil and gas pipelines. Our European partners supported us“, he argued.
At the same time, he supported the revival of cooperation between the V4 countries. “V4 is supposed to work precisely in the topics that unite us, and this topic that we are talking about now – ETS2, is precisely the topic that unites us, and of course we will use all our diplomatic channels, to communicate this topic and prepare for the V4 joint meeting“, he stated.
