An early general election was held in the UK on Thursday, June 9, resulting in no party being able to win a majority in parliament. The Slovak Foreign Ministry thinks it premature to discuss the shift in starting negotiating over Brexit due to the UK election results. "It would depend on the ability of political parties to form a British government," said the Slovak Foreign Ministry spokesperson Peter Susko for the SITA press agency.
Richard Sulík, the leader of the largest Slovak opposition party and a MEP stated that the geographical fact that Great Britain remains in Europe should lead to "rational political stances on both sides of the Channel."
The Slovak press paid attention to the UK elections, too. The independent Dennik N explained that UK Prime Minister Theresa May wanted more seats than her predecessor David Cameron, but her result proves to be even worse. The poll that should have made the political scene clearer only served to blur it further, comments the independent Dennik N.
The SME daily points out that Britons are puzzled. According to its commentator, the election showed that they do not know how to cope with their decision to leave the Union. "The results show that extremists only break a country but are not able to take responsibility for their acts as they don't have any plan," states the SME daily.
The Pravda daily finds Theresa May committing even worse political suicide than her predecessor David Cameron who called for a referendum which ended up exactly the opposite of what the conservative Prime Minister had intended. "If this way of passing on the post becomes a new tradition of a party that has traditions stamped into its political DNA, then the door is open for May's successor Boris Johnson," states the left oriented Slovak Pravda daily, adding that Johnson would become the new Tory leader not for his new ideas, but because Mrs May took an even greater risk than Cameron.
On Thursday, ahead of the early election, the Slovak Ambassador to the United Kingdom Ľubomír Rehák told the TASR press agency that Brexit is definitely an opportunity for Slovaks who came to live in Britain in good faith to reconsider whether they want to stay there or return to Slovakia. "There is solid economic growth in Slovakia, as well as job opportunities chiefly for people who have experience working abroad, who have adequate language skills, and so they are welcome in Slovakia,too," stated the ambassador. Rehák pointed out that salaries in Slovakia are lower, but the quality of life is comparable with that of Britain.
According to official British statistics available to the embassy, some 85,000 Slovaks are currently living in Britain. Of this number, about 5 percent work in top managerial posts.
"Our recommendation is to actually look at job opportunities at home, also because of the current atmosphere in Britain in connection with Brexit and maybe also because of the worsened security situation in the country," stated the Slovak Ambassador to the UK Ľubomír Rehák.
