Opposition Parties Discuss Defence, Reach Consensus, But Not Presenting It Yet

Bratislava, March 19 (TASR) - Opposition parties met for a roundtable discussion convened by the Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party on Wednesday to discuss the defence of Slovakia and Europe, and according to MP Juraj Krupa (SaS), they reached agreement on three topics: defence spending, the development of external defence capabilities, and the strengthening of the country's internal defences, although they won't publicly disclose the outcomes until after a meeting with President Peter Pellegrini. Former justice minister and Christian Democrat (KDH) chairman Viliam Karas believes that issues of state security must be addressed across the political spectrum. He added that Slovakia must spend defence funds effectively and encourage its partners to invest the same level of funds as Slovakia. MP Gabor Grendel ('Slovakia'-For the People-KU) thinks that it's important for the opposition members to send out a clear signal that they care about what happens to the country. He praised SaS's initiative to convene a meeting of the opposition parties. According to Grendel, Slovakia's problem isn't that the Defence Ministry doesn't spend enough, but that it doesn't spend the money effectively. The meeting was also praised by extra-parliamentary Democrats party representative Monika Podhorany Masarikova. In her view, it's reprehensible that Slovakia is excluding itself from international cooperation. She emphasised that the intelligence services are warning that Russia isn't planning to stop at Ukraine's borders and intends to advance further. International cooperation, she stated, isn't an alternative, it's essential. A representative of the opposition Progressive Slovakia (PS) party also attended the meeting at SaS headquarters in Bratislava, but they didn't provide a statement to the media. SaS announced that it plans to continue this format of meetings to cover other topics such as health care and finance. lin/df