BRATISLAVA, November 6, (WEBNOVINY) — Leader of the neoliberal SaS party Richard Sulik was highly critical of Finance Minister Ivan Miklos (SDKU) for his attitude toward the extended European Financial Stability Facility. According to him, Miklos along with Foreign Minister and SDKU leader Mikulas Dzurinda sold out Slovakia just to win praise from Brussels. „You should reflect on this, you have no honor in politics,“ Sulik told Miklos in the Sunday afternoon political debate program on the public channel STV. The SaS leader is convinced that deep in his heart Miklos agrees with him. „Before the elections in 2010, we had the same opinion and that is your personal tragedy, your political failure that you think one thing and you say another thing here and now simply to make Brussels satisfied with us, there is the problem,“ said Sulik. Miklos resolutely refuted Sulik’s references to his conscience. „Your policies in this area are irresponsible and populist and I am convinced that this is mainly due to the fact that political preferences of SaS are falling and you have evaluated that this would lift them and this has worked, but at what price,“ said Miklos. After the early elections in March, Miklos said he could not imagine sitting together in government with SaS unless it fundamentally changed its position in this area. „If we want to be part of the euro area, we cannot be stowaways. If you think it is fair to have advantages of membership in the euro area without participating on its expenses, well that would get Slovakia into isolation,“ said Miklos.
Miklos has no problem with the notion that a controlled default of Greece should have been allowed already a year and a half ago. „But I have a problem with what SaS and Richard Sulik were proposing and if it happened it would not be controlled but uncontrolled default, and that is a problem.“ A precondition for a controlled default according to Miklos is a functioning instrument, a firewall against contagion, the extended EFSF, among others. „The fact that today everyone is horrified there could be an uncontrolled default only shows what SaS had been pushing us into. They pushed us into allowing an uncontrolled default of Greece, and we would be the ones responsible for this,“ said the Minister of Finance in reference to the failed first parliamentary vote on the extended EFSF that brought down the government. According to him, it will be a different situation if there was a referendum in Greece and the Greeks would say that they do not want the eurozone bailout plan. „That would start an uncontrolled default of Greece, but Greeks would be responsible for it,“ he said.
According to Sulik the SDKU-DS party made a U-turn on this issue compared to the period before the elections in 2010, when its view on this issue was similar to that of SaS. „Accusing us that we are irresponsible just because we dared to not make the U- turn on a matter of principle, that is unfair,“ said the SaS leader. Miklos rejects the claim that his party made a U-turn. SaS is confusing the bilateral loan to Greece, which Slovakia has rejected, with an extension of the EFSF. He recalled that in August 2010, SaS MPs voted for the creation of the EFSF. „At that point, however, election preferences of SaS were yet in danger. In October 2011 – a year and a quarter later … they refused to vote in its favor,“ said Miklos and asked who has made a U-turn on this issue. „We have not changed our position.“
Sulik replied that in August, the EFSF was supposed to be temporary, for three years, and should have only be used to bail out countries, not banks, and only those that will be able to repay the loan. None of that is true today, according to Sulik and therefore they rejected the EFSF extension. „We were plainly deceived, in Brussels, they said these terms apply, so approve them. We believed it, so we agreed to it, and now none of it is true, but of course we will not automatically agree with everything that comes from Brussels,“ he said.
Miklos rejects the idea that he internally agrees with the SaS position and externally says something else. „I fundamentally disagree with your position because it endangered Slovakia.“ Miklos sees the current situation as difficult. „Yes – some things have changed, which initially seemed they would be different, but they had to change under pressure from a very difficult situation,“ said Minister of Finance. In his view, SaS did not offer any alternative.
SITA