Following the SDKU party meeting today, Prime Minister Iveta Radicova officially announced in sombre mood that she would not be going forward as a candidate of the party in the early elections in March 2012.
Radicova noted how she had gone into the previous elections with the motto “Together we can do it!”, adding how “we did not see it through to the end”, before pointing to the many positives that had come out of her now broken government. She reiterated again that she stood by her decision to combine the EFSF vote with a vote of confidence the government as it was the only right thing to do.
Now the SDKU party will have to adopt a new shape for March the elections, not much time but the first round of candidate selection will take place on 12 November. Finance minister Ivan Miklos and justice minister Lucia Zitnanska said they had no interest in leading the party into the elections. Foreign minister and head of the SDKU expressed regret about Radicova’s decision, while saying he understood her personal political decision.
What exactly PM Radicova will do after her term as caretaker PM till the elections ends is a mystery for now, as she is refusing to divulge her plans.