Fico: If Voice-SD and SNS Don't Settle Their Disputes, We'll Have Early Election

(TA3, 'V politike', January 12) If the coalition parties Voice-SD and Slovak National Party (SNS) don't resolve the disputes in their parties, we'll have to go into an early election, Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) said on TA3's discussion programme 'V politike' (In Politics) on Sunday, adding that the second possibility is that the coalition agreement will be opened and the conditions in the coalition will change. Fico also declared that he'll do everything to make the coalition last, stressing that the Smer-SD parliamentary caucus is stable. Regarding Slovakia's foreign policy orientation, Fico confirmed that nothing will change. However, in the new statement on the foreign policy orientation that he plans to propose, Fico wants to draw attention to possible security risks and to what the European Union is threatened with because of the war in Ukraine. As for his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Fico said that he had informed European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa about the trip and that it was a private trip. He also confirmed that he's interested in active communication with US President-elect Donald Trump. "If there's a chance to organise a meeting with the US president, we'll do our best to make it happen," he said, referring to the considerations of Trump's visit to Slovakia. The priority topics in domestic politics that Fico wants to address include, according to him, the construction of hospitals and rental flats. am