The opposition Progressive Slovakia (PS) party on Tuesday presented its 'Team of Change', which will hold discussions with its counterparts from SaS, the Christian Democrats (KDH) and Democrats and seek consensus on specific issues.
PS leader Michal Šimečka told a news conference on Tuesday that the team will also keep watch on every step taken by the government, point out its mistakes and work for change.
MEP Ludovit Odor will be the leader in charge of restarting the economy, while party member Ivan Korčok will be in charge of foreign and European policy. Šimečka described these two areas as key. Štefan Kišš will be responsible for finance, Ivan Štefunko for the economy and energy, and Jaroslav Spišiak will be in charge of the interior and police. Michal Truban should be the leader for investments, while Tomáš Valášek will take care of defence, and Ján Hargaš will be in charge of transport. Zora Jaurová will address changes in culture and the media, Simona Petrik labour and social affairs and Tamara Stohlova the environment. Tina Gažovičová should be the PS leader for education, and Zuzana Števulová for justice. Oskar Dvořák will be the leader for changes in the health-care sector. All of the aforementioned are MPs. Peter Bator is the leader responsible for changes in intelligence services, while Peter Horny will be in charge of agriculture. Both are party members.
"PS can win the next election. Even if we win, it's very likely that we won't form the next government alone. I've been saying for a long time and openly that the best chance for change, for a better and stable government, lies in cooperation with KDH, SaS and Democrats. That's why I'm very happy that we're managing to move this cooperation to a higher level," said Šimečka. According to him, the chairs of the opposition parties have agreed on programme consultations between experts on key areas on which they will have to find consensus and intersections between their programmes. The PS leader described this as important. The political parties will thus know what they can expect from each other, what they agree on and how they plan to jointly bring change to Slovakia, added Šimečka.
"This doesn't mean that the opposition parties agree on everything. It doesn't mean that we'll always have the same opinion on everything or that we'll always carry out all activities together, either," noted Šimečka. However, differences can't prevent them from holding an honest dialogue and potentially cooperating in a future government, stated Šimečka.
Source: TASR
