Pellegrini Thanks Coalition for Support, Korcok Points to President's Powers

Bratislava, March 26 (TASR) - Presidential candidate Peter Pellegrini thanked coalition partners Slovak National Party (SNS) and Smer-SD for their support in the campaign leading up to the run-off round of the 2024 presidential race and claimed that the incumbent government has done more in social sphere in the five months of its existence than the previous governments did in three years, TASR learnt from Pellegrini's video posted on a social network on Tuesday. Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) called presidential candidate Korcok a "warmonger" and a puppet of the West, who would drag Slovakia into war if elected president. At the same time, Fico referred to Pellegrini as a candidate who values peace. In his reply posted on a social network, Korcok reiterated that only the government and Parliament have the power to send soldiers to war, not the president. "I've said it several times already that I'm against sending our soldiers to Ukraine," he underlined. Korcok won the first round of the presidential election with 42.51 percent of votes, whereas Pellegrini advanced into the run-off round on 37.02 percent of votes. The second round is scheduled for April 6, Saturday. mf/mcs