Agriculture Ministry: Stefanec Engages in Politicking

Bratislava, January 11 (TASR) - The call of MEP Ivan Stefanec urging Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini (Smer-SD) to meet with representatives of the Farmers Initiative is a political move, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development told TASR on Friday. Earlier in the day, Stefanec claimed that Pellegrini should meet with farmers at last, as the pernicious situation in Slovak agriculture still persists. "In light of the fact that farmers from the east joined the election campaigning of the Christian Democratic MEP (Stefanec) and also collaborate with OLaNO (opposition Ordinary People party), we perceive this group as a political initiative. Therefore, we won't comment on the election statements by this political initiative and Mr. Stefanec. We like to point out that Mr. Stefanec hasn't dealt with agriculture as an MEP, but on the contrary - as a former Slovak head of Coca-Cola he was supplying Slovak consumers with products of double quality standards," reads the response from the ministry. mf