2024-06-16 03:07:54
CTK
Up to date 13 hours in the past
On Saturday, the brand new Slovak president, Peter Pellegrini, took the oath prescribed by the structure and took workplace. In his inaugural speech, he acknowledged that Slovakia is in a tough time when long-term certainties, together with the understanding of peace, are breaking down. In reference to the conflict in Ukraine, which has been resisting the Russian army invasion for greater than two years, he mentioned that the decision for peace shouldn’t be a celebration of the aggressor.
“We should make certain that we’ll do all the pieces to realize peace and by no means enable additional growth of the army battle past our borders. The will for peace is pure and positively not a celebration of the aggressor,” mentioned Pellegrini. In accordance with him, Slovakia desires to assist Ukraine in order that it may take pleasure in a simply peace and subsequent restoration.
Within the pre-election marketing campaign, Pellegrini defended the choice of the present Slovak authorities to cease army help to Ukraine from state reserves. He additionally spoke out in opposition to the Czech cupboard’s choice to droop intergovernmental consultations with Slovakia in response to differing opinions on some overseas coverage points.
“We did not succeed. Slovakia is split,” mentioned Pellegrini after the inauguration. He additionally emphasised the necessity for a powerful state that may care for its residents. He additionally spoke about Slovakia’s “sovereign voice” within the European Union and the North Atlantic Alliance and mentioned he would work on relations with Slovakia’s neighbors.
In relation to the Czech nation, he talked about the household connections of Slovaks. He then referred to as the Might assassination of Prime Minister Robert Fico a blow to Slovakia.
Along with parliamentarians, members of the federal government, former Slovak presidents, diplomats and different invited friends took half within the ceremony on the premises of the Slovak Philharmonic within the heart of Bratislava. Amongst them was former Czech President Miloš Zeman and former Czech Prime Minister and Bratislava native Andrej Babiš. Each supported Pellegrini within the Slovak presidential marketing campaign. The Slovakian opposition motion of ex-prime minister Igor Matovič introduced upfront that his representatives wouldn’t come to the inauguration, as a result of invitation of a consultant of the Russian embassy, which the motion once more criticized for its army invasion of Ukraine.
The 48-year-old Pellegrini, who defeated the diplomat Ivan Korčok within the direct election of the president from the place of the speaker of the parliament and the ruling occasion Hlas-social democracy (Hlas-SD), changed Zuzana Čaputová within the workplace. She didn’t apply for one more five-year mandate.
After taking the oath, Pellegrini obtained the best state award that belongs to him as president. His inauguration was accompanied by strict safety measures. Across the constructing of the Slovak Philharmonic, the police deployed a big variety of their officers and members of the state safety and put in cellular boundaries. Pellegrini waved to his supporters after arriving on the inauguration website.
Already on Monday, Pellegrini will go to a casual EU summit, the place he’ll symbolize Prime Minister Roberto Fico. He’s recovering from the gunshot wounds he suffered after the assault by an murderer in mid-Might. Pellegrini will go to the Czech Republic in June.
For a few years, Pellegrini labored within the Smér-social democratie (Smér-SD) occasion of the already four-time Prime Minister Fico. He left his facet along with a number of colleagues in 2020 and based Hlas-SD. After final 12 months’s early parliamentary elections, their winner, Smér-SD, fashioned a authorities coalition with Hlas-SD and the nationalist Slovak Nationwide Celebration. At the start of June, Pellegrini resigned as chairman of Hlas-SD, solely suspended his membership within the occasion, and the occasion congress established the place of founding chairman of Hlas-SD.
In February of this 12 months, in the course of the vote of the decrease home, as its chairman, he supported adjustments within the legal legislation, which had been criticized by Čaputová, the Slovak opposition and European establishments and which triggered a sequence of anti-government demonstrations in Slovakia.
In accordance with the structure, the Slovak president has somewhat restricted powers. Nonetheless, it may, for instance, return permitted legal guidelines to the decrease home, which then votes to override the presidential veto. Nonetheless, for instance, some selections of the outgoing cupboard, wherein the parliament expressed no confidence, are topic to the consent of the pinnacle of state. This example final occurred within the nation the 12 months earlier than final. A couple of months later, Čaputová appointed an official cupboard that led the nation to early elections.