Opposition Criticises Fico and Course of Foreign Affairs House Session (2)

Bratislava, January 10 (TASR) - The opposition lambasted the course of Friday's special emergency session of the House Committee for European Affairs convened on Prime Minister Robert Fico's (Smer-SD) recent visit to Moscow, taking objection to the fact that Fico didn't answer all of the questions and left early. "It was nothing but a farce at times, particularly when the only ones doing the talking were coalition legislators and Prime Minister Fico - an awful lot of talk, but with nothing of substance being said. And that, in my view, is the most important thing that the people of Slovakia need to learn - whether the Prime Minister managed to accomplish anything with his trips to Moscow, to Brussels and with all those endless press conferences and threats directed to Ukraine, insults heaped on President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy. What has that brought for the people in Slovakia? Because, as the publicly available information suggest, the answer is nothing," said PS chair Michal Simecka. He added that Fico's trip to Russia was non-transparent. Opposition SaS declared that the coalition misused the Rules of Procedure to enable Fico to avoid unpleasant questions. In the opinion of MP Vladimira Marcinkova (SaS), Fico needed to dodge them because he's been repeatedly lying. "At first, he claimed that he went on a private visit [to Moscow]. Today, the tune has changed and it became a public one," she warned, adding that she fails to understand why Fico acts so cagey about the trip. Marcinkova asked the Prime Minister at the session, whether he had also discussed with Russian President Vladimir Putin the return of 50,000 kidnapped children from Russia back to their homeland. "He replied that this wasn't the subject of their talks and it wasn't for one reason and one reason only: because Fico in reality doesn't care about international law," she said. Opposition KDH chair Milan Majersky noted that Fico had repeatedly insulted the opposition at the session. "The Prime Minister humiliated almost all members of the opposition attending the session today; he was vulgar," he claimed. KDH announced that it will negotiate on behalf of Slovakia at the level of the EU because it is part of a strong faction in the European Parliament. MP Veronika Remisova ('Slovakia'-For the People-KU) pointed out that the Prime Minister is held accountable to Parliament, not the other way round. Instead of explaining his actions, Fico resorted to lies, however. "Today, Robert Fico made his classic theatrical performance. He came to the session, didn't say anything, was prevaricating, tried to talk about how he's addressing the gas prices or dealing with gas transit, but in reality he hasn't accomplished anything, hasn't negotiated anything," stated 'Slovakia' caucus chair Michal Sipos. mf/mcs