President: I Hope Ties with Prague, Damaged by Election Campaign, Will Improve

Bratislava, 28 October (TASR) – I hope that relations between the Czech Republic and Slovakia will soon see a significant improvement at the political level because, with the Czech election campaign now over, there will no longer be any need to comment on the situation in Slovakia or to emphasise differences of opinion between Czechs and Slovaks, President Peter Pellegrini told journalists on Tuesday. On the occasion of the 107th anniversary of the founding of the first Czechoslovak Republic, Pellegrini, along with Czech Ambassador to Slovakia Rudolf Jindrak, laid a wreath at the Memorial to Czechoslovak Statehood and subsequently at the Monument to M. R. Stefanik in Bratislava. "I firmly believe — and I say this in general — that I have the hope that, after the end of the election campaign in the Czech Republic, the need to comment on the situation in Slovakia, as we witnessed during the campaigns of individual political parties when Slovakia became part of that electoral struggle, will disappear. I think that the election results will calm the situation down and that politicians on both sides won't feel the need to further highlight differences of opinion between Czechs and Slovaks. I firmly believe that after the formation of the new government, regular consultations and joint sessions between our cabinets will resume," Pellegrini declared. According to him, this would benefit both countries as well as the region. "Czechs and Slovaks have always prospered when they've acted together. I'm convinced that once our relations stabilise at the political level, there will be a gradual revival — and I would very much welcome it — of the V4 format, because Europe and the European Union face serious challenges and difficult decisions, and we've always succeeded in promoting the interests of our region when we've acted together," stressed the head of state. Czech Ambassador Jindrak also acknowledged that relations were strained by the election campaign. He expressed confidence that regional cooperation, which he considers to be crucial, could be revitalised. He added that acknowledging a shared past demonstrates the maturity of both nations' elites. Pellegrini concluded by saying that despite the division of the two republics in 1993, their common path continues. "We live in the same region, part of one large European community, a collective system of mutual defence and protection, and we are simply destined to cooperate," he added. mf/df