On Tuesday 15 June the four centre-right parties (which rejected outright the invitation of outgoing PM Fico to enter into talks on forming the government) signed an agreement on future political co-operation, which they have presented to President Ivan Gašparovič to demonstrate their readiness and willingness to form the country’s new government.
The agreement was signed by Iveta Radičová (SDKU), Richard Sulík (SaS), Ján Figeľ (KDH) and Béla Bugár (Most-Híd).
Radičová, the only real candidate for the PM job (would be the first ever lady PM), said how on Wednesday all four parties would request an audience with President Ivan Gašparovič, to inform him of the agreement and their intention to form a four-party coalition government. “We’ve also agreed on our priorities – what to focus on, and what to present to the citizens,” explained Radičová. The four centre-right parties will set up a working commission to collate the various documents and basic visions drafted by each of them, which they will then form into the government manifesto. The parties have set the 22 June as the date for publication of a final version.
All four parties jointly declared that they were aware of the problems Slovakia currently faces, and that they were ready to address the problems caused by the global economic crisis and the ‘irresponsible’ policies introduced by Robert Fico’s Government.
All the party leaders of SDKU, SaS, KDH and Most-Híd have already spoken individually with the President, at his invitation, and so they are now awaiting his call to speak about the formation of the new government.
There was speculation that Robert Fico had offered the Christian democrats KDH the post of Prime Minister and other benefits if they would join him in government, in a last-ditch attempt to stay in power. If true, this ‘dangling carrot’ did not have the desired effect, and so the new government should be instated next week, as Robert Fico’s Smer party had until Wednesday officially to attempt to form a majority government.
The new parliament will include 60 new faces, most from newcomer SaS. The youngest MP will be 27 years old and there will be 10 fewer women overall in parliament. Only Most-Híd will have no female representatives.