Premier: M.R. Stefanik Our Steady Point We Can Always Lean on

Bratislava, May 4 (TASR) - General Milan Rastislav Stefanik is one of the brightest points of our history, which we can always lean on, Prime Minister and Smer-SD leader Robert Fico said in a video posted on a social network on the occasion of the 106th anniversary of Stefanik's tragic death. The premier honoured the memory of Stefanik's tragic death at the memorial in Ivanka pri Dunaji (Bratislava region). "I've come here in particular to remind Slovaks of his characteristic qualities. How hard-working he was, how educated he was and how he loved his own country and his own people. Therefore, let his legacy be inspirational for us," he stressed. Fico pointed out that Slovaks have never been lucky to have continuity of statehood. "We have gone through great betrayals, often from big brothers, both in the west and in the east," he noted, pointing to the Munich Agreement or the invasion of Warsaw Pact troops. "The sad thing is that after 1989 we've been betraying ourselves. Let's remember how previous governments had no problem allowing bomber flights over Slovakia so that Serbia and Belgrade could be bombed," he added. According to him, the current situation in Slovakia is not about a battle between the right and the left, a good or bad programme. "It is about whether Slovakia will survive, whether Slovakia will be a sovereign, dignified country which, despite not being very big, will play a certain role in the European space," he added. Stefanik, one of co-founders of Czechoslovakia in 1918 and its first and last minister of war, was killed with his entire crew when his Caproni Ca.33 biplane crashed near Ivanka pri Dunaji on May 4, 1919. am