Slovak premier begs EU to judge coalition on results

Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico is calling for the EU to judge his government on the basis on its actions rather than condemning him out of hand for his controversial choice of coalition partners.

Speaking in Brussels on his first visit since taking office in July, Fico sought to deflect criticism of his decision to form a coalition with the Slovak Nationalist Party (SNS) and former president Vladimír Meciar’s HZDS and a spate of incidents involving the country’s ethnic Hungarian minority.

"Don’t evaluate the government only on the basis of its composition. Evaluate it on its programme and according to practical policy," Fico said.

He stressed that his government had not taken any actions which were not in keeping with the EU’s values on human rights and treatment of minorities and denied that there was "any link" between the recent spate of incidents involving Slovakia’s ethnic minorities and the inclusion of HZDS and SNS in government. Fico stressed his administration’s resolve to deal with any cases of intimidation, promising to tackle "cases of nationalism". He announced he would be meeting Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsáy in early October to discuss the problems. But Fico called for an "objective" assessment of the issue. Slovak police had taken action against individuals responsible for attacks on Hungarians whereas similar cases in Hungary against Slovaks - including graffiti on the embassy in Budapest and offensive slogans at football matches - had gone unpunished, he maintained.

He also accused the Hungarian party, which is in opposition, of exploiting the situation to criticise the government, arguing that "there are no cases before the constitutional court of abuses of Hungarian rights".

The Party of European Socialists (PES) will decide on 12 October whether to suspend Fico’s SMER party over its coalition partners following protests that their presence undermined the PES’ attempts to fight ethnic intolerance.

Fico insisted that the composition of the government allowed his SMER Social Democratic Party to fulfil a "Social Democratic programme" to create an "economically efficient welfare state".

He stressed that the new government backed reform only when it was "beneficial for the majority". The previous administration of Mikulás Dzurinda, who was prime minister for eight years, had "only served the minority", Fico said, leaving Slovakia with one of the highest rates of poverty (21%) and unemployment (14%) in the new member states, as well as the lowest wages.

The new government has already reversed some of its predecessors’ reforms such as healthcare charges and was faced with dealing with the costs of some changes including cuts to disability pensions ruled illegal by the country’s constitutional court and a 21 billion krone (€560 million) shortfall in social security funding.

But Fico emphasised that Bratislava was still committed to adopting the euro in 2009 and would keep the public deficit to 3% in 2007 and shrink it to 2.5% the year after.

SMER plans to scrap the famous 19% flat tax on personal incomes in favour of a more progressive system with lower eligibility for deductions for higher earners.

The Slovak premier said that he had raised the issue of the inflation criteria for joining the euro with European Commission President José Manuel Barroso. Lithuania’s bid to adopt the euro was rejected in July because its inflation rate was marginally higher than the target value. Fico said that he wanted a "political" rather than technical discussion about this criterion because higher inflation was an inevitable side-effect of the high economic growth his and other new member state economies were enjoying.

Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico is calling for the EU to judge his government on the basis on its actions rather than condemning him out of hand for his controversial choice of coalition partners.

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