Pellegrini accepts role as election party leader

Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini has accepted the role of Smer-SD party election leader, Pellegrini's spokesperson Patrícia Macíková announced on Thursday. Macíková was speaking in response to party chair Robert Fico's proposal that Pellegrini be offered the top spot on the 2020 general election slate. In other election news, Freedom and Solidarity party chairman Richard Sulík announced at a press conference on Thursday that the group of people centred around the party's vice-chair Ľubomír Galko and MP Jozef Rajtár won't be included in the party's general election slate draft. He added that these party members "pose an extreme flight risk in terms of leaving the party and its caucus after the election." As people who don't inspire confidence as being stable and reliable partners for the formation of a centre-right government, they have no business being on the slate, Sulík said.