Premier: We Fulfilled Promise Concerning Full-fledged Pension Benefit

Brussels, April 18 (TASR) - By approving an amendment to the Social Insurance Act, Parliament has fulfilled a "clear promise" made by the parties of the ruling coalition that pensioners will receive a full-fledged thirteenth pension in the full amount of the average pension in a given category, Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) posted on Thursday on a social network, praising the approval of the amendment by the constitutional majority. "It's the fulfilment of the Government Manifesto, but it's also proof that we're working on a diabolical plan. On the one hand, we're looking for money to consolidate public finances, while on the other, we're able to find almost €900 million. This is the expenditure that we'll have to use to implement this huge social project," said the premier, who is attending the EU leaders' summit in Brussels these days. Fico pointed out that full-fledged 13th pensions had already been approved once, immediately before the 2020 general election. However, the subsequent government scrapped them. "And today, parties like Progressive Slovakia or [Freedom and Slovakia] SaS have again shown which side they're on. It's absolutely certain that if these people were to come to power, they would once again scrap the 13th pension. I believe that this is also proof for the people of Slovakia of the importance of voting for a governing coalition that has an extremely strong social programme," stressed Fico. am