BRATISLAVA, March 28, (WEBNOVINY) – The election winner SMER-SD that will rule the country for the next four years does not want to write the government’ program statement according to particular ministries but it wants a comprehensive document based on the vision of Slovakia by 2030, designated Prime Minister and SMER-SD Chairman Robert Fico stated on Wednesday after meeting with representatives of public life. “We want the government program statement to be predominantly about policies of how Slovakia should proceed and what it should do to be successful,” Fico said. This is also a reason why he met on Wednesday at Bratislava Castle with representatives of employers, employees, the Association of Towns and Villages of Slovakia (ZMOS), counties as well as with representatives of the two strongest churches in Slovakia, namely Catholic and Evangelical, with representatives of the Slovak Chamber of Commerce and Industry, with representatives of the academia and others. They all agreed that within some ten days they will submit priorities they consider important to the team that will compile the program statement. Subsequently there will be bilateral talks about these proposals in order to find an agreement leading to incorporation of these priorities in the government’s program statement.
According to Fico, even though the program statement will be formed by the government and departments, he emphasized that it would be a mistake not to use the potential, capacity and experience of social partners and other institutions working in Slovakia within formation of the statement. “I officially appealed to social partners to cooperate so that we would jointly look for meeting points in formation of the program statement where it is possible,” Fico added.
General Bishop of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Slovakia Milos Klatik invites the opportunity to hold a dialogue adding that they have topics they would like to submit for a discussion, including mainly charity, i.e. protection of the disadvantaged, education as well as the social area. He stressed their interest in protection of the Sunday as the free day, mainly in connection with the family. However, he understands that this topic has to be a subject to a discussion involving several parties.
According to Chairman of Slovak Bishops‘ Conference Stanislav Zvolensky, Wednesday’s meeting was mainly about invitation for particular institutions to contribute to the program statement which the Catholic Church welcomes. He said that their church mainly wants to support families, chiefly those with more children, and formation of jobs. Zvolensky also pointed out to the fact that the state’s contribution to salaries of clerics is insufficient while their education and contribution for the society should be taken into consideration.
SITA