Monitor: Slovakia Does Not Intend to Support Pandemic Treaty, Says Premier Fico

(STVR, 'Sobotne dialogy', May 17) Speaking on STVR's politics programme 'Sobotne dialogy' (Saturday Dialogues) Premier Robert Fico (Smer-SD) said that Slovakia does not plan to support the pandemic agreement at the World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland, and intends to request that the treaty not be adopted by so so-called global consent but rather through a vote, adding that the government was expected to decide on the matter per rollam on Friday, May 16. "If anyone would like to challenge the per rollam decision, I will convene the government at any time, even tomorrow morning, and we'll adopt the decision at a regular cabinet meeting. This is our position on the pandemic treaty. It's harmful to sovereign countries and this is the stance we have taken," he noted. The premier also addressed the crisis within the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the influence of pharmaceutical companies over it. "The have prepared a pandemic treaty, which we've been monitoring closely from the very beginning. This pandemic agreement, which is being offered as some kind of solution, in our view significantly interferes with the sovereign right of the state to determine how it will handle processes related to any future pandemics," he said. However, the prime minister admitted that views on the pandemic agreement differ within the coalition. "We're not obliged to have the same opinion. We're three parties in the government coalition. The Voice-SD supports the pandemic agreement and has a huge problem with the fact that Smer-SD and SNS [Slovak National party] hold a different view," he stated. In response to Voice-SD's criticism, Fico expressed a wish for the tensions among coalition partners to ease. "Their parliamentary caucuses have collapsed, and the government no longer holds a majority in Parliament. As a result, I've had to make decisions they don't agree with and the level of nervousness on their side is quite high," he added. lin