Odor: Bad State of Public Finances Outcome of Fico's Choices Mostly

Bratislava, September 22 (TASR) - Former head of caretaker government (2023) Ludovit Odor rejects accusations from coalition representatives, according to which the former caretaker cabinet is to blame for the unfavourable state of public finances in Slovakia today. "Since the unveiling of (Prime Minister Robert) Fico's costliness, we've heard a thousand times from his ministers a lie that's supposed to become new truth. Allegedly, the caretaker government that lasted five months is to blame for the bad state of public finances, never mind the fact that in reality the caretaker government actually scrunched the planned deficit down. Fico has got nothing else but excuses up his sleeve," claimed Odor. In Odor's view, Fico tries to shift the blame to all around him. "But in reality when he sat down into the prime minister's seat for the first time, the public debt hovered at only around 30 percent of GDP. When he was done for the third time, we were already nearing 60 percent of GDP. Yes, (Igor) Matovic's pro-family package worked to increase the debt even higher, but the bad state of public finances in Slovakia is mostly on Fico. He squandered the good years for handouts and looting, hasn't saved up any money," claimed Odor. Earlier in the week, Fico declared that the Government must consolidate because it needs to "clean up the mess" left behind by the previous governments. "In 2020, we handed over public finances in perfect shape, there wasn't any problem with anything. In 2023, after three years of misgovernance by (Eduard) Heger, Matovic and, particularly Odor, we received the worst public finances in the EU," he averred. mf