'Slovakia': President Pellegrini Tool in Hands of Premier Fico

Bratislava, 15 June (TASR) - President Peter Pellegrini is a tool in the hands of Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) as he has signed all harmful laws for him, representatives of the opposition 'Slovakia' party said, adding that Pellegrini also won the presidential election by fraud, for which he was fined, TASR learnt from party's spokesman Matus Bystriansky on Sunday. "Pellegrini has turned the most senior constitutional office into a puppet of political parties and secretly attends the Voice party's congresses," said MP and 'Slovakia' party chair Igor Matovic, commenting on the president's one-year tenure in office. The party representatives also responded to Fico's press conference held earlier in the day. For example, they disagree with Fico's claim that Moody's gave Slovakia the same rating. They say that a year ago the same agency significantly downgraded the rating and Slovakia was thus given a low credit rating. The party attributes this to the high risk that Slovakia won't be able to repay its liabilities. "Instead of Fico trying to put Slovakia's downgraded rating back to where it was under our government, he's praising [Finance Minister Ladislav] Kamenicky [Smer-SD] for managing to keep the bad rating, which is the same as the one we had in 2003 before we joined the EU," stated Matovic. am