PS Calls for Security Council to Be Convened Due to Foot-and-mouth Situation

Bratislava, March 31 (TASR) - Leader of the opposition Progressive Slovakia (PS) party has called for a meeting of Slovakia's Security Council because of the situation with the spread of foot-and-mouth disease, the PS media department told TASR on Monday. "Premier Robert Fico's [Smer-SD] government has utterly failed in crisis management. As early as March 7, it was clear that there was a threat of an epidemic of foot-and-mouth disease, with drastic consequences for farmers and the entire economy. The central crisis management team should have met immediately, the government should have activated crisis plans and coordination with neighbours, and, of course, convened the Security Council. Today is 24 days since the first information was made public. What is the reality? The crisis management team meeting is scheduled only three weeks after, the Security Council hasn't met at all. Nobody has even heard of a crisis plan," stressed Simecka. The PS leader also criticised the current government for how it's addressing the situation. "Reactions of Fico's government are the slowest in the whole region. And even what they are pushing for - the elimination of animals in outbreaks - is being argued about publicly by the governing parties," he pointed out, calling on the premier and all those responsible to address the crisis and convene the Security Council. am