BRATISLAVA, March 12, (WEBNOVINY) — Drawing personal consequences for the party’s defeat in elections in Saturday, Mikulas Dzurinda announced on Monday he no longer wants to be at the helm of the SDKU-DS. The elections were close to a fiasco, when the party considering itself the leader of the Slovak right only narrowly made it to parliament earning 6.09 percent of the vote. After the meeting of the SDKU presidium on Monday, Dzurinda told journalists that he will not run for the top job at the party congress on May 19. He announced he would support the candidacy of Deputy Chairwoman Lucia Zitnanska. Dzurinda wants to continue as an opposition MP in parliament.
Dzurinda underscored that already on Monday he clearly demonstrated that he takes over full political responsibility for the failure of right-center parties to form a government while the SDKU failed to contribute to the common result as had been expected from it. „I will not run for the chairperson post,” he said. Deputy Chairman Milan Hort will not run for any top post in the party either. Also the head of the election team Kamil Homola resigns from his post, announced Dzurinda.
The SDKU leader is glad that Lucia Zitnanska showed interest in the top job. He is convinced that the SDKU has a personality that can strive for wide support among members and the public. “I believe that she will be a good party boss. She has the qualification to restart the party. I will strongly support Zitnanska’s candidacy,” stated Dzurinda. He has asked Zitnanska to represent the party already from now on. Dzurinda wants to remain in parliament and wants to sit on the Foreign Committee, where he would only comment on matters of internal politics when this would be absolutely necessary.
Zitnanska has confirmed that she will run for the chairperson position. “SDKU-SD is worth of it. This party has a potential for restart. Voters’ message for us is that they want a change,” she stated.
Analyst and head of MVK pollster Jan Baranek says that given the election result of SDKU, the step of its leader Mikulas Dzurinda is logical. However, he thinks that it should have come earlier, before the elections when it was already clear that SDKU preferences are falling and the Gorilla graft case surfaced. A departure of Dzurinda at that time would have helped the party much more, he stated.
SITA