Prime Minister: Czech President will be catalyst in fostering closer ties

Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) is confident that re-elected Czech President Miloš Zeman will serve as one of the key catalysts in bolstering above-standard ties between Bratislava and Prague also in his second term in office, said Vice-premier for Investments and Informatisation Peter Pellegrini (Smer-SD) during Question Time on behalf of the premier in Parliament on Thursday. In this context, Fico pointed out that Zeman's first visit will again be to Slovakia. "We'd like to show that even the splitting of states can be a success story," he said. According to Fico, the Czech Republic with its direct presidential race drew inspiration from Slovakia. "Any shouting about the polarisation of society seems to me an artificial wish to incite such polarisation. It is mainly those who are less successful in a parliamentary election that talk about polarisation, as if they would like to use the polarisation to compensate for their lack of success."