Danko Believes that President Will Stand against Increase in Defence Spending

Nitra, 21 June (TASR) - Coalition Slovak National Party (SNS) leader and House Vice-chair Andrej Danko believes that President Peter Pellegrini will stand against increase in defence spending at the upcoming NATO summit in the Hague, Danko himself told a news conference following the congress held by the party at the Agrokomplex exhibition centre in Nitra on Saturday. At the same time, Danko believes that Premier Robert Fico (Smer-SD) will never more raise his hand for anti-Russian sanctions. "I believe that the president will maintain his character and will stand against the increase in [the defence] spending side by side with Spain and that Robert Fico will also maintain his character and raises his hand for anti-Russian sanctions never again," stressed Danko. Concerning considerations about Slovakia's potential neutrality, he called on the premier to start taking steps to ensure that "Slovakia doesn't have to finance mad armaments in NATO". Danko appreciated the fact that Smer-SD and SNS are converging in many opinions. However, he pointed out that the current governing coalition wasn't born easily. "Without SNS's political gesture, without those 5.6 percent viewed by some as ridiculous, Robert Fico wouldn't become premier and Peter Pellegrini wouldn't become president," he noted. SNS at its congress agreed to call on these two constitutional officials to do at the international level what they say at home, added Danko. Evaluation of the work of the SNS caucus was also on the agenda of Saturday's party congress. Danko stressed the need to do the utmost to ensure that the national vote doesn't fail in the next election. "We also talked about cooperation with other national parties," he said. Danko declared that SNS fully supports an amendment to the Slovak Constitution. He added that Slovakia must continue to develop tourism and sports. ko