Opposition on Consolidation: Gov't Should Seek Savings Mainly on Side of State

Bratislava, September 24 (TASR) - As part of financial consolidation, the government should seek savings primarily on the side of the state, but it only plans to save 5 percent on itself for now, while the rest should be paid by the public, representatives of the opposition Progressive Slovakia (PS) and Christian Democrat (KDH) parties told a news conference following their meeting with Premier Robert Fico (Smer-SD) on Tuesday. PS leader Michal Simecka came to the meeting with a call that has several points. "First, the premier should clearly say what the final form of consolidation will be. It is distasteful to all people who are concerned about what will happen next year that after months and months they are still unable to tell them what will actually be approved," he said. According to Simecka, the premier should mainly seek savings on running the state. Otherwise, 95 percent of the consolidation will be paid by the public. "We even told the premier specific things that ministers should do to achieve long-term savings. However, there was no answer, no response as to how they would do it or whether they want to do it at all. Quite the opposite, they only want to take money from people in the form of increased VAT," added Simecka. Simecka also criticised life-long rent payments for premiers. "We won't assist Robert Fico with this asocial package, we won't legitimise it, we won't negotiate on its individual items," he said. KDH came to the meeting with five measures that would save the state budget €2.7 billion, said its chairman Milan Majersky. "We, naturally, passed them to the premier. We'll see if they take anything from it. Anyway, we prepared our measures on the basis of an expert group led by our economic expert Jozef Hajko really well, professionally and substantively," stated Majersky. Hajko noted that KDH has a big problem with the consolidation package. "The reason is that the philosophy submitted by the government, which is saving mainly via the public, is not changing in any significant way, and we don't see any great willingness on the part of the state to affect itself," explained Majersky. ko/df