BRATISLAVA, March 20, (WEBNOVINY) — Designated Prime Minister Robert Fico, whose party SMER-SD will rule alone after the March 10 early elections, said on Tuesday that he wants to form a shadow cabinet to control steps of his ministers. He specified for journalists that he wants a very strong team of aides at the Cabinet Office. “Let’s call it a shadow cabinet. Each department has to have a partner at the Cabinet Office. Responsibility transferred on SMER’s shoulders is huge and SMER has to create control mechanisms that would represent internal control, he added. “Ultimately, people will not see coalition councils where everybody quarrels, only if I was arguing with myself,” Fico said.
The future prime minister opines that to form a government by a single party is more difficult than with coalition partners as they set limits for division of portfolios. If SMER-SD wants to create a functional unit, it has to keep in mind functioning of state secretaries and control mechanisms.
The new cabinet that should take over on April 4 will copy structures of the current cabinet as competence changes in the respective law have not been approved. He however said that their program statement can include decisions towards sliming down central bodies of the state administration. Apart from the discussed mergers of ministries (culture with education, defense with interior, etc.) SMER-SD will push through the dissolution of the government privatization agency and the specialized county administration.
At his news conference on Tuesday, Fico also said that he hopes to introduce new political culture. According to him the outgoing president, prime minister and speaker of parliament should get an offer for a professional post on behalf of the state. “These people could use their experience, contacts and background for the sake of Slovakia’s good reputation. I support the introduction of such tradition. I definitively will take the first step but I will not speak about anything concrete now. It will depend on that person, whether s/he will accept it or not,“ he said. He however refused to reveal whether he really offered the ambassadorial post in London to the outgoing prime minister Iveta Radicova, as NOVY CAS tabloid reported on Monday.
SITA