President gives Prime Minister deadline to form government

Following a meeting with President Andrej Kiska this morning, Prime Minister Robert Fico and leader of the centre-left SMER party received a mandate from the president to form a government from elected parties before the deadline of Friday, March 18. Fico announced that, "I'm organising a ranking of political parties to consider. I'll reach out to them and seek areas of common understanding. I want to lay the foundations of a stable government well into the future". The prime minister explained that meetings with other parties will begin immediately, alluding to working with the rightist Slovak National Party and afterwards the "alternatives to standard political parties". Fico reportedly invited Most-Hid party chairman Béla Bugár and Sieť party chairman Radoslav Procházka to meet for discussions, but both rejected the invitation, reported SMER party spokesperson Ľubica Končalová. Prime Minister Fico has ruled out working with the far-right party Kotleba - Ľudová strana Naše Slovensko (People's Party - Our Slovakia).