Nad: Fico Attempting to Confuse Voters in Attack on Democracy

Bratislava, May 31 (TASR) - It was under the cabinet of Robert Fico in 2018 when the Government Office passed a document titled 'A Concept for the Slovak Republic's Fight Against Hybrid Threats', and the document created an institutional framework for combating such threats, former defence minister (2020-23) and Democrats vice-chair Jaroslav Nad pointed out on Wednesday. Nad was speaking in response to claims by Smer-SD chair Robert Fico, who stated that Slovak experts called the political opposition a hybrid threat at their EU and NATO meetings in Brussels. "The group that took part in this, according to Robert Fico, 'shocking' meeting in Brussels in April was a group created by the government of Robert Fico," said Nad. He added that the delegation was made up of experts specialising in hybrid threats. Nad's colleague, MEP Vladimir Bilcik, added that there's no need for anyone to go all the way to Brussels to complain about Fico and Smer-SD. "In Brussels, they've been well aware about this for a long time, and they're paying close attention," he said. Nad underlined that Fico is misleading the public with the aim of confusing voters. He called on all democratic parties to condemn an attack by Smer-SD and the Slovak National Party (SNS) on democracy and to pledge that they won't form a coalition with Smer-SD. Nad also urged democratic parties to declare that there is no alternative in Slovakia's future to its EU and NATO memberships. Earlier in the day, Fico claimed that a group of Slovak state bureaucrats and NGOs had informed EU and NATO officials in April that the Slovak political opposition poses a hybrid threat and that if it wins the parliamentary election, Slovakia might leave NATO. According to Fico, the group allegedly asked the EU and NATO for an intervention and for a "special NATO group" to be dispatched. Because of this, Fico wants to convene an extraordinary House session. mf/df