Premier Criticises Opposition Activities Linked to Incident in Serbia

Bratislava, 15 August (TASR) - Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) has criticised the activities of the opposition, especially the Progressive Slovakia (PS) party, related to the incident that happened at the festival in the town of Backi Petrovac last weekend, TASR has learnt at premier's press conference on Friday. The prime minister thinks that its actions should lead to the same situation in Slovakia as in Serbia, accusing the opposition leaders of wanting to bring skirmishes, conflicts and disorder to Slovakia. He does not understand why they are calling on him to intervene. In his view, this is an internal matter for Serbia. "An internal affair, which is a sovereign matter of Serbia, has become an excellent opportunity for our opposition politicians to, on the one hand, support the opposition in Serbia and, at the same time, try to transfer to Slovakia the 'Maidan-isation' that we are already seeing in Serbia," he noted. The premier and Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar (Smer-SD) once again declared that the incident was an internal matter of Serbia. "It was not about any rights of national minorities. The rights of the Slovak national minority in Serbia are well taken care of. In Serbia, this is a standard conflict between citizens, part of whom vote for the government and the other part votes for the opposition and, unfortunately, this division is also present in the Slovak national minority," Fico stated. The head of Slovak diplomacy also criticised the fact that PS members had written to EU representatives about the case. He claims that they have grossly distorted the reality in it. Supporters of the Serbian government attacked on Saturday (9 August) a photo exhibition of anti-government protests in Backi Petrovac [a town in which ethnic Slovaks make up the majority of the population] which was unofficially held on the sidelines of the Slovak National Festivities there. There was a conflict between them and the organisers of the exhibition, including skirmishes. During the clash, the photographs on display were damaged, and several people sustained minor injuries. The opposition criticised and condemned the incident, blaming the government for its inaction. am/mcs