2024-03-21 04:46:50
The last debate before Saturday’s first round of the presidential elections in Slovakia was accompanied by mutual demarcation between the two most popular candidates for the position of head of state. All ten candidates took part in the discussion, the third most popular of them, ex-Minister of Justice Štefan Harabin, repeated his pro-Russian views, including the rejection of anti-Russian sanctions.
Several candidates for the highest political position in the country, as well as Harabin, spoke out in favor of the country’s withdrawal from NATO. On Thursday, the country begins a moratorium on the conduct of the election campaign and the publication of polls for the presidential elections; it will last until the polls are closed.
“Slovakia lives in difficult times, I wish for the reconciliation of society,” said Peter Pellegrini, the favorite of the elections, the speaker of the parliament and the ruling party Hlas-social democratie (Hlas-SD), in a televised debate on the public broadcaster RTVS. In the campaign, he bet on the slogan “Slovakia already needs peace”. He also stated that Slovakia must not be a “compromiser” of large countries.
Pellegrini rejected the views of his main rival in the presidential election, ex-foreign minister Ivan Korčok, who speaks of the head of state as a counterbalance to government power.
Korčok, on the other hand, pointed out that the announced peace is lacking in the country, due to repeated large demonstrations in the streets of Slovak cities. These prompted the actions of the current Slovak government coalition, in which Pellegrini’s Hlas-SD is the second strongest party.
“It is not calm, but tens of thousands of people are in the streets. People are in the streets because even this television, where we are today, can become state television,” Korčok said about the Ministry of Culture’s proposal to significantly strengthen the state’s influence on RTVS. He added that Slovakia needs an independent head of state.
According to polls, it is Pellegrini and Korčok who should advance to the decisive second round of the election of the head of state. Pellegrini was also criticized by ex-prime minister Igor Matovič, who indirectly described him as a servant of crime and the mafia.
Harabin rejected anti-Russian sanctions
Harabin claimed that as president he would do everything to prevent Slovakia from being dragged into a war against Russia. He also rejected anti-Russian sanctions and reiterated that Bratislava should not send “a single bullet” to Ukraine, which is defending itself against the Russian invasion, and should not support it financially.
In the discussion, several presidential candidates, whose public support is low, spoke in favor of Slovakia’s withdrawal from NATO, as well as Harabin. For example, the head of the non-parliamentary far-right Kotlebovci-Lidová strana Naše Slovensko party, Marian Kotleba, claimed that Slovakia is subservient to criminals in NATO. On the contrary, for example, another former foreign minister, Ján Kubiš, emphasized the importance of the country’s membership in the North Atlantic Alliance.
The moderators of the discussion repeatedly admonished some presidential candidates when they directly criticized their opponents while answering their questions.