Voters Want Both Smer-SD and Voice-SD, Kalinak and Tomas Concur

Bratislava, November 20 (TASR) - Voters have clearly shown that the Voice-SD and Smer-SD parties can cooperate as two separate parties, said Vice-Premier and Defence Minister Robert Kalinak (Smer-SD) and Labour Minister Erik Tomas (Voice-SD) following the cabinet session on Wednesday in reaction to a statement by Czech ex-president Milos Zeman regarding a merger of the two parties. Kalinak noted that the Czech ex-president has presented this opinion before. He perceives it as a logical point of view, but at the same time he pointed out that there are differences between Smer-SD and Voice-SD, which is why voters received an offer from both parties in the most recent general election. "And the election results showed that there's demand for such an offer. If voters want to see a single party, they will definitely let us know," he added. Tomas confirmed that Voice-SD will run as an independent party in the next election as well. "Moreover, practice shows that two such social-democratic parties can work together and that they have even higher support than if there were only one such party," he said. Zeman in a speech delivered at the ceremonial congress held by the Smer-SD party on Sunday (November 17) advised the party to consider merging with Voice-SD. He views it as 'abnormal' for two social-democratic parties to exist in a single country. ko/df