Bratislava, Oct. 3, (dpa/GNA) – After the parliamentary elections in Slovakia, Peter Pellegrini, head of the HLAS-SD (“Voice-Social Democracy”) party has stressed that he is open for talks with other parts of the political spectrum.
After talks with President Zuzana Čaputová on Tuesday, Pellegrini said he would first speak to left-wing election winner Robert Fico and “we will conduct negotiations responsibly so that a government is formed.”
Fico’s left-wing nationalist party SMER-SSD won the Central European country’s parliamentary elections with 22.9% of the vote. He already was head of government from 2006-2010 and 2012-2018.
Pellegrini’s party came in third place with 14.7% and the liberal party Progresivne Slovensko (“Progessive Slovakia,” PS) were second with 18% of the votes.
Meanwhile, Fico has called out Swedish leader of the European Socialists (PES), Stefan Löfven, over what he called “blackmail.”
The former prime minister threatened to expel the SMER-SSD party from the European Socialists if Fico maintained his position on the Ukraine war. Fico called Löfven’s threats “undemocratic” and “authoritarian.”
In the run-up to last weekend’s parliamentary election, Fico had called for immediate peace negotiations with Russia and advocated ending military aid for Ukraine.
He recently came under fire after he announced that he would not send Ukraine “one more cartridge.”
GNA