PS: Fico's Government Has Made Public Finances Worse After Consolidation

Bratislava, 8 July (TASR) – The government of Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) is the only Cabinet that has put public finances in even worse shape after a fiscal consolidation drive, opposition Progressive Slovakia party leader Michal Simecka and House finance and budget committee member Stefan Kiss stated at a press conference on Tuesday. "The entire burden of this year's consolidation - the rising cost of living - has been for nothing because the deficit this year will be even higher than when Fico's government took office. So, what kind of consolidation is that?" asked Simecka. He called on the government to use July and the first half of August to present concrete and effective savings measures that will avoid pushing Slovakia into a recession. Kiss added that severe consolidation measures should have at least reduced the national debt. "But that would have required a finance minister who isn't as incompetent as Ladislav Kamenicky (Smer-SD). Even after all this, Slovakia will end the year with a higher deficit than when this government took power in October 2023, when [the deficit] stood at 4.7 percent of GDP. Current projections show the deficit reaching 5.2 percent by year-end," said Kiss. He emphasised that the expected deficit is worse than during what the government itself has labelled an "economic disaster" under previous administrations. "After two years of Fico's leadership, we'll be worse off than during the pandemic or the energy crisis," he said. Kiss put the blame for the current situation directly on Prime Minister Fico and Finance Minister Kamenicky. "This is pure amateurism and reckless endangerment of people's futures. They've demonstrated that they're incapable of governing properly. I join chairman Simecka in urging the government to present a real consolidation plan. If it can't, then the only solution is for it to step down," he stated. mf/df