PS and KDH Reject Potential Forming of Next Government with Voice-SD

Bratislava, January 2 (TASR) - The opposition Progressive Slovakia (PS) party and the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) can't envision any potential post-election cooperation with Voice-SD any more, their leaders have told TASR in end-of-year interviews, pointing out that after more than a year in power Voice-SD has grown distant from them and is gravitating towards Smer-SD instead. PS and KDH also criticise Voice-SD for lending support to Penal Code changes, while House Chair Peter Ziga, who's been tasked with heading Parliament in a temporary capacity, told TASR that he stands behind the amendments. PS leader Michal Simecka cannot envision any cooperation with Voice-SD in the forming of potential new government. "In the year since Voice-SD has been part of the governing coalition, it's come to resemble Smer more and more with each passing day, to the point that it has transmogrified into a sort of copy of Smer," Simecka told TASR. In hindsight, Simecka believes that PS made the right decision when it considered forming a coalition with Voice-SD in the immediate post-election period in 2023. "But the situation is different today, and we have experience now with how Voice operates in the coalition with Robert Fico. It's been gravitating towards Smer to the point that it's difficult to tell them apart now. It's completely different from the time, back in the day, when Voice harboured an aspiration to distinguish itself, so for me this is passe," he said. Simecka underlined that Voice supports everything that Smer, and even SNS, submits, including amendments to the Penal Code to decriminalise corruption and the scrapping of public broadcaster RTVS. "Instead of Voice speaking against this, or our foreign affairs policy orientation, its chair Matus Sutaj Estok gives the impression that he's serving as Fico's spokesperson," he stated. In a similar vein, KDH has a problem with many things Voice-SD has done in the past year, so it can no longer perceive it as a potential coalition partner. KDH chair Milan Majersky sees the existence of two political currents within Voice-SD. "One is represented perhaps by chair Sutaj Estok, who shows a strong proclivity for the rhetoric of Robert Fico and politics emulating Robert Fico's, while the second voice in Voice can be heard in the form of a so-called splinter faction headed by Samuel Migal," he explained to TASR. In KDH's view, Voice-SD has changed profoundly over the past year, after it, for instance, lent its support to the Penal Code changes. Meanwhile, Majersky reiterated that KDH's stance on excluding Smer-SD from any cooperation still holds. "With the amendment of the Penal Code, Smer only confirmed where it's headed, and, of course, the past year has not helped it in the slightest to court KDH," he said, adding that everything points to Smer-SD intending to realign Slovakia with totalitarian regimes, particularly Russia and China. mf/df