PS: Thousands of People Will Lose Jobs Owing to Government's Economic Measures

Bratislava, 20 January (TASR) - Thousands of people in Slovakia will lose their jobs due to measures taken by Robert Fico's government (Smer-SD) that are stifling economic growth, stated representatives of the opposition Progressive Slovakia (PS) party at a press conference on Tuesday. "As far as consolidation is concerned, it stifles economic growth and results in lay-offs. There's the transaction tax, increases in taxes and levies, and now we'll feel the new increase in levies for sole traders, which will effectively destroy them. All of this hinders economic growth. What needs to be done is to reduce the tax burden, increase competitiveness and economic activity, save where this government should have saved long ago, especially in the running of the state, and use European money much more efficiently," said PS chairman Michal Simecka. PS vice-chair Simona Petrik specified that factories in Handlova, Banovce nad Bebravou, Partizanske (all Trencin region) and Samorin (Trnava region) are laying off workers, as are large IT companies in Bratislava and Kosice. "So, to sum it up, the future looks bleak for factories in Slovakia, and not only factories; smaller companies in Slovakia are also either closing down or moving their business and production to neighbouring countries. Self-employed people are closing their businesses on a large scale," emphasised Petrik, adding that according to an analysis by the Slovak central bank (NBS), another 17,000 people will lose their jobs in Slovakia in 2026 as a result of the government's consolidation measures. "I don't understand at all what kind of world of denial the labour minister [Erik Tomas (Voice-SD)] is living in. He can't see this, or rather pretends that nothing is happening. He even said publicly that the occasional closure of factories or lay-offs has nothing to do with the government's actions. Well, it does, of course. This is confirmed by all available statistics; for example, as I've already mentioned, by the Slovak central bank. It's just that the minister doesn't want to see them," she added. According to PS presidium member Stefan Kiss, PS would consolidate in the opposite way to the current government. "The second thing is that this government has no vision whatsoever. The vision must come from the prime minister, which is why chairman Simecka has spoken about it. They [the coalition] haven't presented any measures to support economic growth. But we have a vision, we've presented it repeatedly, and we'll speak about it a lot more. It's called Bang, and in it we present measures to kick-start economic growth," added Kiss. am/df