PS Not Opposed to Scrapping Holidays, But State Must Cut its Expenditure First

Bratislava, June 2 (TASR) - The opposition's Progressive Slovakia (PS) party can envision the scrapping of certain public holidays as part of a broader package of consolidation measures, but it believes such steps should be considered only as a last resort, as it's necessary to find savings in the inefficient state administration first, said PS leader Michal Simecka at a press conference on Monday. The possibility of scrapping public holidays — suggested last week by employers — was acknowledged on Sunday (June 1) by Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) as a potential way to offset lost state budget revenue in the event of a change to the transaction tax. „Speaking on behalf of Progressive Slovakia, we are not ruling out that in some theoretical mix of measures, one or more public holidays could be included. But that should be the very last thing we consider, because it would hurt people — employees," said Simecka. He argued that the government should primarily cut its own expenditures — such as consultancy services, aircraft purchases, or by introducing targeted energy assistance. „Only then can we turn to citizens and say: look, we all need to tighten our belts a bit. Perhaps we’ll need to increase something on the revenue side or cancel a public holiday — but that must come last," Simecka added. mf