Danko: Giving in to Individual Demands Road to Hell

Bratislava, 6 November (TASR) - I've warned in the past that giving to individual demands would be a road to hell, because once it starts, every MP could begin making demands, leader of the junior coalition Slovak National Party (SNS) and House Vice-chair Andrej Danko told journalists in Parliament on Friday in connection with the situation in the coalition and changes in its caucuses. "This is the result of Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) failing to respect the SNS and Voice-SD political parties, with which he governs. People like [former environment minister Tomas] Taraba, [Tourism and Sports Minister Rudolf] Huliak and [Investment Minister Samuel] Migal have started to feel that they are Fico's partners. Take a look at my letter from two years ago. I wrote that if we started giving in to individual demands, it would be a road to hell, because every MP might have such demands in that case," he remarked. Danko said that it was outrageous that Samuel Migal and Investment Ministry State Secretary Radomir Salitros, who were Independent MPs at that time, were given control of a ministry in an effort to calm the situation within the coalition. "What's the point of the coalition agreement between Smer-SD, Voice-SD and SNS if people like Migal, Taraba, [Independent MP] Malatinec, and god knows who else, can do this? With this kind of maths, even 35 ministries wouldn't be enough for Fico, would they? Then every two MPs could have a ministry," said Danko, adding that he's horrified at how Fico could have allowed this to happen. Danko has repeatedly objected to Fico's attempts to blame SNS and Voice-SD for the situation concerning the parliamentary majority. "The problem is that the ego trips of people who are unable to be members of political parties now think that they can set up their own parties," added Danko. Earlier this week, Fico stated that it's the duty of the government and Parliament to do everything possible to complete the current electoral term, while greater attention will need to be paid to individual MPs when discussing which bills will or won't be passed. He said that Smer-SD's parliamentary caucus is stable, whereas its coalition partners SNS and Voice-SD are responsible for the current situation concerning the parliamentary majority, as they've failed in the process of drawing up their slates and their caucuses have fallen apart. jrg/df