Monitor: Danko: Smer-SD Must Learn to Treat its Partners with Respect

(STVR, Sobotne dialogy, March 22) Speaking on STVR's political talk show 'Saturday Dialogues', leader of the junior coalition Slovak National Party (SNS) Andrej Danko claimed that he's not happy with the way the coalition crisis has been resolved and who took over the Ministry of Sports and Tourism that his party established. "The Prime Minister has given them everything. All it takes today is to have two angry lawmakers and they can get a ministry with a budget worth billions," stated Danko, who noted that the Government has no leverage over dissatisfied legislators after this. In Danko's view, Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) saved himself with his solution as well, but Smer-SD must learn to treat its coalition partners with respect. Danko also voiced concerns over how sessions of the coalition council will be run in its new extended format. MP Gabor Grendel ('Slovakia'-For the People-KU alliance), also on the show, believes that the way Fico tackled the coalition crisis came as a "low blow" to his SNS and Voice-SD coalition partners. The resultant deal demonstrates in his view that Fico is willing to do anything in order to stay in power and that the Prime Minister allowed the discontent lawmakers to "blackmail him" into meeting their demands. "The loser, in my opinion, is Slovakia because it's apparent that the coalition crisis is probably over. What remains to be seen is whether this ending is final or only temporary," said Grendel, who believes that the situation might inspire other coalition lawmakers to gridlock Parliament with an eye towards pushing their own interests. mf