The Minister of Labor Erik Tomáš (Hlas-SD) and the chairman of the opposition SaS Branislav Gröhling reject the statements of Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar that Hungary neighbors itself. Tomáš reminded that Magyar had similar rhetoric already in the pre-election campaign. Gröhling pointed out that it is not clear how Magyar meant his words. Politicians stated this in the Slovak Radio’s discussion program Sobotné dialogy.
“Hungary neighbors one sovereign Slovak Republic, whose borders were set by peace agreements, and I am sorry that the Hungarian Prime Minister is starting this way, because we cannot wish for anything else in Slovakia, only good, peaceful neighborly relations, and he certainly does not contribute to them like this,” said Tomáš. Gröhling considers Magyar’s words to be the first stumble. He pointed out that the statements could be aimed at the non-recognition of borders, but also at the fact that a large Hungarian minority lives in several countries.
“I think that’s very unfortunate. We all have to respect the borders because we’re continuously living that experience within Ukraine and there we’re quite principled and we really reject such statements. So we should also reject this statement, because what Mr. Péter Magyar, Prime Minister of Hungary said, is not really worthy of a European leader,” he declared.
At the same time, the Minister of Labor announced in the program that the members of his party in the parliament will support the implementation regulation of the Constitution of the Slovak Republic in connection with the recognition of marriages of same-sex couples concluded in other countries of the European Union. Gröhling pointed out that the Court of Justice of the European Union talks about the registration of the union in its decision. According to him, states do not have to change their laws. He pointed out that in France, for example, a church marriage is invalid, but nevertheless the country recognizes unions concluded by a church in another country, where possible.
The debate also covered economic topics. For example, the President of SaS criticized the department of the Minister of Labor for mistakes in pension forecasts. According to him, the current government will open the second pension pillar. “With the functioning of this government coalition and with the way they are behaving, it is only a question of when they will open the second pillar to draw in money,” he declared. Tomáš flatly refused. “We will not open the second pillar.
And I came up with some kind of solution that is supposed to help those people for whom the second pillar is not worth it, but it will not be the opening of the second pillar,” he says. He also defended the pension forecasts, which, according to him, point to errors in the records not caused by the Social Insurance Agency, which citizens can correct in time.
