PS: Fico's Government Insults Intelligence of Young People

Bratislava, 13 November (TASR) – The government of Robert Fico (Smer-SD) is once again insulting the intelligence of young people, spreading lies and blaming the opposition, opposition Progressive Slovakia (PS) party leader Michal Simecka has stated in response to Fico's press conference on Thursday. According to Simecka, Fico was merely attempting to distract people from Slovakia's real problems. The PS chair underlined that young people are capable of thinking for themselves. Simecka said that Smer-SD is currently claiming that PS MP Darina Luscikova is responsible for the problems in Slovakia. "Government politicians are saying that our MP pressured a student, Michal from Poprad, to write his opinion in chalk on the pavement in front of his grammar school [the student wrote 'Fico is a traitor' and accused him of being Putin's lackey, sparking other chalk messages on pavements in several municipalities across Slovakia — ed.note]. They claim that students are too young and unable to assess the situation themselves," he said, adding that young people in Slovakia are fully aware of the mess that the government has led the country into and that they don't need the opposition to express their democratic dissent. "And we in PS will always stand up for them so that they can say what they think — exactly as our MP Darina Luscikova did in Poprad," he added. According to Luscikova, the government is attacking those who dare to criticise it. "It reminds me of 1989, when, as a 15-year-old grammar school student, I watched communist officials on television claiming that we were being manipulated, simply because we expressed our views freely and peacefully, just like young people across Slovakia today who are writing chalk messages to the government," she said in a statement. Simecka added that through its attacks, Smer-SD is indirectly inviting people to attend the gatherings scheduled for 17 November — the anniversary marking the end of totalitarian rule in the erstwhile Czechoslovakia. Smer-SD has accused PS of exploiting young people in the political struggle and of spreading hatred and intolerance. Parliamentary vice-chair Tibor Gaspar (Smer-SD) pointed to a video featuring Luscikova outside a grammar school in Poprad, in which she said that a prime minister who despises young people has no place giving lectures in a school. The video was recorded before a planned discussion with Prime Minister Fico last Friday (7 November). Luscikova was later seen with the aforementioned student. According to Gaspar, she tried to prevent the lecture from taking place. Smer-SD has called on the media and the opposition to stop using young people in the political struggle. mf/df