Premier Praises President's Appeal to Adopt Next Year's Budget

Bratislava, November 29 (TASR) - Prime Minister Eduard Heger (OLaNO) praised the fact that President Zuzana Caputova appealed for the adoption of the state budget for next year in her State of the Republic address to Parliament, TASR was told by Heger's spokeswoman Lubica Janikova on Tuesday. The premier agrees with the head of state that Slovakia is facing hybrid threats that it wasn't prepared to deal with. According to him, populism in particular contributes to the polarisation of society. "Society is strongly polarised. We can look for the causes in the crises that we have been going through over the past two years. However, populism mainly contributes to polarisation, which, although it's part of the political struggle, its use today represents a gamble with negative sentiments. This is where I see our joint role with Ms. President, so that we can work together to change for the better," said Heger. The prime minister noted that he perceives the president's address in the context of the fact that its purpose is to provide a critical view of current events in the country. "However, the president also praised the fundamental reforms that we managed to adopt in the areas of health care, education, the judiciary and nature conservation. She also highlighted the quality of Slovakia's Recovery and Resilience Plan, which is a key source of the country's recovery after the pandemic," he stated. The prime minister thinks that the government has already responded to many of the challenges mentioned by the president. He pointed to a one-time increase in the child allowance as part of the anti-inflation aid, an extraordinary pension for seniors, the raising of pensions and support for low-income and the most vulnerable groups of residents. am/mcs