Pellegrini: We Must Learn to Respect Results of Elections without Aggression

Bratislava, June 12 (TASR) - Elections are a celebration of democracy, and part of that is respect for people's choices in them, president-elect Peter Pellegrini has said in an exclusive interview for TASR. Pellegrini opined that it's politicians' role to remind the public of this dimension of democracy. In the struggle for voters' support, however, politicians sometimes fail to perceive the line at which they need to stop, otherwise tensions in society threaten to exceed a tolerable limit. "We must learn to fully respect the outcome of elections. Not to be frustrated by it, not to be aggressive, not to plan a coup one or two weeks after the failure of one party," the president-elect stressed. According to Pellegrini, democracy gives any party that is dissatisfied with its election result a second chance in the next election. "Political parties should sense when a conflict is still appropriate, when it's still OK to stir up emotions and when it goes beyond the boundaries of decent behaviour and safety," he stated. The president-elect claimed that he saw too much of an increase in tension following the most recent general election and that was why he chose the idea of peace as the main slogan of his presidential campaign. "I saw that tensions were rising in families, workplaces and among various groups of the population. I talked about the fact that Slovakia needs to start tearing down that notional wall," Pellegrini said. This was one of the reasons why he and President Zuzana Caputova reacted to the assassination attempt on Premier Robert Fico in a joint manner. "We wanted to tell the public that a terrible thing had happened, that they should refrain from overreacting. We wanted to prevent some kind of skirmish or perhaps a tragic incident," Pellegrini said. Although the joint initiative to organise round-table talks involving the parliamentary political parties at the Presidential Palace has not been realised, Pellegrini wants to build on it in the future. The aim, according to him, isn't to artificially reconcile politically divergent positions or to make friends of rival politicians, but to debate the future of Slovakia and the limits of political culture. "I'm concerned about maintaining an elementary political culture in Parliament," he said. As president, he wants to build on the positives of his predecessors and bring added value himself by promoting a social debate on the long-term vision of Slovakia's development. "I want to travel around Slovakia a lot, talk to people," he noted. He also confirmed that his first official trip as president will be to the Czech Republic. He is due to meet his Czech counterpart Petr Pavel on June 26. Pellegrini's inauguration is set to take place on June 15. zel/mcs