Monitor: House Chair Rasi Cannot Envisage Cooperation With Republika Party

(STVR, 'O 5 minut 12', 29 March) Speaking on STVR's discussion programme 'O 5 minut 12' (Five Minutes to Twelve) on Sunday, House Chair Richard Rasi (Voice-SD) said he cannot envisage cooperation in forming a government with the extra-parliamentary Republika party, nor with the opposition 'Slovakia' party. Also on the show, opposition Progressive Slovakia (PS) leader Michal Simecka reiterated that it's no longer possible to consider cooperation with Voice-SD, as was the case during the 2023 parliamentary elections. At the same time, he recommended that parties polling at around five percent should consider potential mergers. In response to PS's decision to exclude Smer-SD, Republika, and Voice-SD from future cooperation, Rasi told Simecka that their coalition partners would thus involve 'Slovakia' leader Igor Matovic and the opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party, which has toppled the government three times. "It's the voters who will deal the cards, not the leaders of political parties," stated Rasi. He remarked that, in addition to PS, 'Slovakia' and the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) have also ruled out cooperation with Voice-SD, noting that KDH has thus embarked on a "path to self-destruction". So far, Voice-SD has not held a congress regarding the exclusion of parties from cooperation, but Rasi said that he personally, as the party's vice-chair, cannot imagine working with 'Slovakia' or Republika. "It's too early to say in what constellation we'll run in the elections," said Simecka when asked if he would be the leader of a broad coalition in the parliamentary election. He stated 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. According to him, preventing the loss of votes is primarily the responsibility of parties hovering around the Parliament entry threshold, with smaller parties merging on a single list of candidates being one of the ways to address the situation. Simecka suggested that KDH and the extra-parliamentary Democrats party could consider this option more actively. According to Rasi, former Voice-SD MP Jan Ferencak himself must explain the video recording which shows him handing over cash in a garage. He said that President Peter Pellegrini's meeting with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, which took place in February 2020 when Pellegrini held the position of prime minister, was by no means a secret and that its purpose was to guarantee energy supplies. Rasi rejected suspicions of election interference from abroad. jrg