Interior Minister Sutaj Estok Condemns Finnish President Stubb's Statements

Bratislava, March 31 (TASR) - Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok (Voice-SD) condemned on a social network on Monday the comments made by Finnish President Alexander Stubb, who in an interview described Slovakia and Hungary as "somewhat problematic" countries inside the EU. According to Sutaj Estok, the Finnish head of state claims that countries that reject the constant arming of Ukraine, that want peace and that are outside liberal views should belong to the group of OUT countries, i.e. those that should leave the European Union. "I reject and condemn such a statement from any leader," wrote Sutaj Estok, adding that the European Union is a peaceful community. The interior minister also criticised that US President Donald Trump has no qualms about imposing tariffs on a weakened and disunited EU. Sutaj Estok would have rather expected the Finnish president to propose joint action against US tariffs instead of "ill-considered words" to avoid a trade war. He would also have expected a call for cohesion and a search for compromises between member countries. Finnish President Alexander Stubb, referring to the current developments around Great Britain as a non-member state of the European Union in the meantime and, on the contrary, London's leading position in the so-called coalition of the willing, said in an interview with CNN last week that relations on the continent have, in his opinion, become more flexible in recent times. "What I'm starting to see is a more flexible Europe - or what we could call the EU plus and minus. With the plus being the United Kingdom, Norway and Iceland, and maybe the minus being member states like Hungary and Slovakia, which are a bit problematic inside the European Union at the moment," said the Finnish president. am