The political discussion on the STVR program O 5 minut 12, in which the deputy speaker of the parliament and the Smer party Tibor Gašpar and the leader of Progressive Slovakia Michal Šimečka met, initially focused on economic topics. The debate was substantive, even though both presented different opinions and different data on Slovakia’s economy and its future development.
The moderator opened the debate by asking where the ordinary citizen is in the conflicting statements of the politicians. According to him, the government began to “repair the worst public finances” and at the same time preserved the social standard, including measures such as the 13th pension and family support. “I can legitimately say that life in Slovakia is not as bad as the opposition portrays it,” he added. However, he also admitted that “not everything can be idealized” and there is room for improvement.
The opposite view was offered by Šimečka, according to whom the standard of living has worsened and people are significantly worse off. “A normal family of four has 1,500 euros more in expenses… whereas the minister of this government has 3,500 euros more per year,” said the PS leader. “We have the worst sustainable public finances in the entire EU… we have inflation that is higher than any of our neighboring countries,” he claimed. According to him, the government failed to reduce the deficit despite increased taxes and fees.
Direction always for 13th pensions, PS wants addressability
Gašpar countered that the deficit has decreased from around 6.5% to around 4.5% and should continue to decrease. “So we work a little with numbers,” he responded to Šimeček’s claims. He also pointed to the stable ratings of Slovakia and the comparison of the debt with other countries: “We are moving at the level of 61%, the eurozone has somewhere above 82-88% of GDP.” However, Šimečka argued that Slovakia, as a smaller economy, cannot afford high indebtedness. “Smaller, open countries… already have a problem at 40, 50 or 60% debt. And that’s why the risk of the Greek path is much greater for us,” he pointed out.
The discussion also turned 13. pensions. Šimečka suggested that they should be more targeted: “… so that we can save, for example, half of the 930 million.” Gašpar rejected such an approach and emphasized that it is a key measure of the government.
Bears and governorates
Tibor Gašpar from Smer said that he and PS differ in the basic vision of the country. According to him, the vision of the PS movement is that “citizens will only be able to go up to the village sign” and then they will have a bear’s living space, or that they will “give citizens two sweaters and the heating will only be 18 degrees”.
Šimečka responded that Gašpar is underestimating his voters with these statements. “Do you consider your voters to be so unintelligent that they believe this? You really think that people don’t remember what happened here for 15 years, when Robert Fico was in power? Is this your vision for the voters?” Gašpar later called his words hyperbole. The leader of the PS subsequently said that if he hyperbolizes, Slovakia will become a Russian governorate, government politicians will have amnesty, Slovakia will live like Belarus and the Bödör mafia will rule here.
They criticized each other for nepotism and nepotism
Sunday’s discussion in the STVR became more intense when it came to political topics. Michal Šimečka defended the fact that the PS has been talking about the alleged “nepotism and nepotism” of Smer for the last few weeks. “We didn’t start this, but if the gentlemen from Smer want it, they will have it. We will not let ourselves be beaten and we will point out the paranoia of politicians from Smer,” he said, adding that the difference between PS and Smer is that they criticize politicians’ decisions and do not attack their family members.
Gašpar responded to this: “You said that all civil servants are breadwinners.” And he also added that in the case of subsidies for Michal Šimečka’s mother, they only “reacted to what he brought from life”. He also blamed Michal Šimeček for the fact that the PS pays the husband of MP Tina Gažovičová, Ondrej Gažovič, who has been Šimeček’s adviser for a long time, from party money.
The deputy speaker of the parliament announced that Smer will bring new findings that will concern the cultural center Tabačka, which was led by Martin Dubéci from PS during the last election period. “The police will show the results in a moment,” he said in connection with the investigation of the Projekt Fórum association.
Attacks on women: bad system or failure
The brutal murder of a teacher in Gelnica shook Slovakia and became another topic of this televised debate. Gašpar emphasized the need for a thorough investigation of the case and avoiding premature conclusions. “It needs to be clarified… I don’t want to work here with assumptions and unverified facts,” he said. But he conceded that if there was a failure, concrete consequences must follow. According to him, even technical solutions may not always prevent a tragedy: “The system itself would not necessarily ensure that this contact did not occur.” Nevertheless, he declared his support for legislative changes: “Any change that will help prevent something like this from happening again will be absolutely supported.”
Šimečka described the case as evidence of a wider failure of the state. “We should all apologize to Slovak women that the state cannot protect them,” he said. According to him, this is not an individual error, but a systemic problem: “This is not the failure of an individual… this is a systemic problem in Slovakia.”
Gašpar accused the opposition of using the case for politics. Šimečka also criticized Prime Minister Robert Fico’s recent statements about the journalist as unacceptable: “Do you think this is normal behavior?” asked Gašpar, calling them part of a “culture of hatred towards women”. Gašpar responded with a counterattack and pointed to the opposition’s double standard when evaluating similar situations.
Strictly about politics
In the end, both debaters jumped into each other’s words on political issues. Šimečka said that he believes in the success of the opposition: “I hope that progressive Slovakia will sovereignly defeat Smer in the national elections.” Tibor Gašpar said that the pre-election atmosphere can already be felt in the coalition. “Preferences below five percent activate Mr. Danko to take meaningless steps for me. On the platform of a functioning coalition – and I refer this to Mr. Danko – he would be able to do more,” he added.
Gašpar confirmed that there were negotiations in Smer about whether the party would support MEP Judita Laššáková for the Prešov robe. “However, there is no agreement yet,” he said. At the same time, however, he expressed his belief in Smer’s electoral victory: “The Smer party will win the national elections.”
