Danko: If President Supports Defence Spending Hike, He'll Do So without Mandate

Bratislava, June 20 (TASR) - If President Peter Pellegrini supports an increase in defence spending at the upcoming summit of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) member states, he'll do so without a government or parliamentary mandate and on his own responsibility, chairman of the coalition Slovak National Party (SNS) and House Vice-chair Andrej Danko said at a press conference on Friday, admitting, however that the president has the constitutional right to decide on this issue. The Presidential Palace responded to Danko by saying that the head of state will coordinate his position with Premier Robert Fico, Defence Minister Robert Kalinak and Foreign Affairs Minister Juraj Blanar (all Smer-SD). "President Peter Pellegrini will coordinate his position at the NATO summit in The Hague with the premier, the defence minister and the foreign minister," the President's Office told TASR. "He [the president] doesn't have a mandate, such a mandate can't be one round-table where you get coffee and one pagach," said Danko, alluding to the meeting of political party leaders who discussed the issue with the head of state at a round-table. Pellegrini, according to him, did not receive a "blank cheque". According to the SNS head, an increase in defence spending to the proposed level of 5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) would mean an expenditure of €7 billion per year for Slovakia. Danko, as he said, can't imagine how the state could further increase taxes and find the money. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has proposed that NATO defence spending of member states should be increased to 5 percent of GDP, of which 3.5 percent would go directly into defence spending, while an additional 1.5 percent could be used for other defence-related spending. Following the round-table meeting with the political leaders, the head of state said that Slovakia won't disrupt unity at the upcoming NATO summit in the Hague, which will be mainly focused on efforts to reach an agreement on increasing defence spending. At the same time, Slovakia will insist that any increase in defence spending should be spread over as long a period of time as possible and that dual-use spending should make up a significant portion of the total sum, said the president, adding that fulfilling this commitment will be the responsibility of the current but also future Slovak governments. am/mcs