The parliamentary and non-parliamentary opposition can imagine co-operation with the new "For the People" party which ex-president Andrej Kiska launched on Monday. However, the head of OLaNO, Igor Matovič, commented that if his caucus chair Veronika Remišová were to join Kiska's new party - as Kiska has suggested - then that would be a bad beginning to any potential co-operation. "We welcome the offer of co-operation, however,we have heard contradictory statements. On one hand he spoke about co-operation, on the other he said that he wants to shatter our movement and lure Remišová into his party," stated Matovič, adding that Kiska will do his utmost to achieve this.
The extra-parliamentary coalition of Progressive Slovakia (PS) and Together (Spolu) has issued a statement that it shares common aims and ideas with Kiska's party and wants to hold talks on co-operation. "We believe that the new party won't follow the path of the old generation of lawmakers, namely quarrelling with Smer-SD and also among [the opposition], and that soon we'll meet around a table to discuss co-operation," reads the coalition's statement.
"We Are Family" party leader Boris Kollar stated that he prefers to wait for the concrete programme of Kiska's party rather than listening to "grandiloquent" words. He doesn't exclude any potential co-operation, however, despite the differing agendas and ideologies of the two parties. Kollar noted that he isn't afraid of the possibility of departures from his party to Kiska's party.
Robert Fico, the head of Smer - the largest party of the governing coalition - views Andrej Kiska's new party as the opposition's problem, stating that Kiska means "absolutely nothing" to him. Fico, who was Prime Minister for almost four years during Kiska's term in office, again took shots at the former president, mentioning his travels from Bratislava to Poprad in a special government plane, and that Kiska lied about financing his presidential campaign five years ago. He also pointed out that none of the "great" countries received Kiska when he was president.
