Kollar and Sulik to Run in 2027 Election on Joint Slate

Bratislava, 8 September (TASR) - Former head of opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party Richard Sulik and chair of the non-parliamentary We Are Family party Boris Kollar will run for Parliament in 2027 on a joint slate, Kollar announced at a press conference on Tuesday. Kollar added that Sulik's team was offered every second place on the list and that the party is going to be officially renamed into 'We Are Family and Sulik Team'. Kollar underlined that neither Sulik nor the team around him will formally join the party. "They are not joining us and will not become our members. We proposed to him and offered him every second place on the candidate list for his economic team. We offered to change the party's name to We Are Family and Sulik Team so that the distinction is clear. We also offered to work together on the programme, and, of course, he'll lead the economic team, while we'll be responsible for the empathy within the party, which is very important [a reference to claims that Richard Sulik is an economic expert who thinks in Excel charts while showing low levels of empathy-ed.note]," Kollar said. Sulik said he will comment on potential candidates at a later stage. He noted that dozens of people have already expressed interest and were on a preliminary list of candidates. He also spoke of agreement on values and policy. "The SaS party, which I founded in 2009 and led for 15 years, is now significantly more progressive. Of course, that is their right, but I have to say that today, and also following Milan Krajniak's departure from We Are Family, I am closer to We Are Family and Team Sulik in terms of values and policy than I am to today's SaS. And I have long been consistent in my views," Sulik stated. Independent MP Jana Bitto Ciganikova has not ruled out joining the slate. Speaking to journalists after the press conference, she said that if nothing changed and she was able to continue promoting her long-held views, she would be on the list. Her other option is to leave politics altogether. Sulik terminated his membership of SaS in April. He cited the party's significant shift in values as the main reason for his departure. He said his decision had also been influenced by the expulsion of Bitto Ciganikova from the party. SaS justified the expulsion by saying she had damaged the party's good name and had been discrediting it in the media over a prolonged period. The MP, for her part, claimed she had been expelled because of her criticism of current SaS chair Branislav Groehling. mf