KDH: No Plans for Joint Slate with Other Parties in General Election

Bratislava, 29 March (TASR) - The opposition Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) does not plan to run on a joint slate for the parliamentary election with other parties, stating that it will run in the election independently, TASR has learnt from the KDH's communications department. "KDH seeks to democratically replace [Prime Minister] Robert Fico (Smer-SD) at the ballot box. We're running independently, aiming for a strong result that will bring about change in Slovakia. A strong KDH in government is a guarantee that families will be prioritised, the economy kickstarted and that people will keep more of their money. At the same time, we'll not allow any untested experiments that could harm Slovakia. We have no plans for a joint slate with other parties," stated KDH. Earlier on Sunday, in connection with parties running on a joint slate, the opposition Progressive Slovakia (PS) leader Michal Simecka stated that preventing the loss of votes is primarily the responsibility of parties hovering around the Parliament entry threshold, currently at five percent. According to Simecka, merging smaller parties on a single list of candidates is one of the ways to address the situation, and he specifically mentioned the extra-parliamentary Democrats and KDH. Simecka also reiterated that PS would offer the possibility of a broad pre-election coalition if the threshold required for parties to enter Parliament were to be increased. In addition to KDH and the Democrats, PS is also prepared to govern with Freedom and Solidarity (SaS). jrg