Matovic: SaS Shamelessly Joining Forces with Mafia

Bratislava, September 23 (TASR) - Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) is joining with the mafia, OLaNO leader and Finance Minister Igor Matovic said on Friday in response to SaS filing a no-confidence vote in him earlier in the day. Matovic called the Liberals' move a confirmation that after the election, SaS will shamelessly join forces with Smer-SD or Voice-SD, drawing attention to the cases of former governments. "The future election will be about who will betray with the mafia and who can be trusted to never betray with people who are responsible for the total looting of Slovakia or the deaths of [journalist] Jan [Kuciak] and [his fiancee] Martina [Kusnirova]. OLaNO will never enter a coalition with Smer-SD, nor with the renamed Smer [Voice-SD]," he stressed. Head of the OLaNO parliamentary caucus Michal Sipos is disappointed by the attitude of SaS. He sees this as an attempt to take revenge on Matovic. Like his party boss, he claims that the liberals "shamelessly" joined forces with those who "harmed Slovakia for many years and were stealing our common money". Meanwhile, Voice-SD chair Peter Pellegrini described Matovic's ouster as one of the important steps to end the political chaos of the minority government and create conditions for talks on an early election. According to him, the vote will also show who is in favour of keeping Matovic in office. Pellegrini accuses Matovic of disintegrating the state, blaming him for dividing society with his statements, using lies as a working method and for bringing chaos and disorder into the governance of the state. According to Pellegrini, the OLaNO leader also elevated the war in the coalition above helping people, pointing to the pandemic and the energy crisis. The no-confidence motion in Matovic was signed by 32 MPs. In addition to SaS, it was supported by independent MPs Miroslav Kollar and Tomas Valasek, as well as nine lawmakers from the extra-parliamentary Voice-SD party. According to the rules of procedure, Parliamentary Chair Boris Kollar (We Are Family) should convene the meeting within seven days since the motion was submitted. am/mcs