SNS Mulling Its Own Presidential Candidate, Pellegrini Rejected Its Support

Bratislava, December 14 (TASR) - The governing Slovak National Party (SNS) is mulling its own presidential candidate, according to a position provided to TASR by the party on Thursday. The party claims that Parliamentary Chair Peter Pellegrini (Voice-SD) as a potential candidate rejected support from SNS. "SNS is ready to support Robert Fico, but he refuses to run [for the post]. Meanwhile, Peter Pellegrini rejected the coalition support from SNS. Therefore, it's natural that we're considering our own candidate, as the time is running out," stated the party. Concerning a presidential candidate, Vice-premier and Environment Minister Tomas Taraba (an SNS nominee) said on Radio Expres on Thursday that SNS has "a bigger intersection of electorate" with Smer-SD and, therefore, it's easier for SNS to recommend to its voters Robert Fico as a candidate. According to him, SNS voters would not be able to "completely understand" the recommendation of Pellegrini. "From this viewpoint, SNS should offer its own candidate," added Taraba. He views party leader Andrej Danko as the most likely candidate of SNS for the presidential post. Danko a few days ago stated that SNS should decide on its approach to the presidential election at a party congress that will probably be held between the holidays. He specified that some SNS figures are talking about supporting Stefan Harabin, while others are speaking about Danko's duty to run for the sake of preserving the unity of nationally-oriented parties. Pellegrini hasn't yet confirmed whether or not he'll run for the presidential post. Diplomats and ex-ministers of foreign affairs Ivan Korcok and Jan Kubis, plus founder of the Initiative for Erased Parents Beata Janockova have already announced their intention to run for the presidential post. Current President Zuzana Caputova has said that she won't re-run for the presidency. The presidential election in Slovakia will be held in 2024. The parliamentary chair is supposed to announce its date in January. ko/mcs