Slovakia's Fico seals coalition deal for third term

Leftist Premier Robert Fico sealed a coalition deal with three rightwing and centrist parties Wednesday, handing his party a third term in office and averting the risk of an early election ahead of Slovakia's EU presidency.

His populist Smer-Social Democracy (Smer-SD) clinched an 81-seat majority in the 150-member parliament along with the right-wing, eurosceptic Slovak National Party (SNS), Siet liberals and the Most-Hid party Hungarian minority party.

"We have reached an agreement of four political parties on the will to form a government coalition," Fico told reporters Wednesday in Bratislava.

"I want to submit this agreement to the president as soon as possible," he added.

A settlement had been given added urgency with Slovakia due to take the the helm of the rotating six-monthly EU presidency from July 1.

As the senior coalition partner with 49 seats, Smer-SD controls the prime minister's office as well as the culture, economy, foreign affairs, finance, health, interior, labour and social affairs portfolios.

The 15-seat SNS took farming, defence, and education, while the 11-seat Most-Hid scored justice and environment. Transportation went to the 10-seat Siet.

Three Siet MPs and one from Most-Hid refused to enter the government.

It has vowed to create 100,000 new jobs by 2020 in the successful eurozone economy of 5.4 million people and to slash corporate tax from 22 to 21 percent.

A record eight parties entered parliament in the March 5 election, a fragmented result that had threatened to trigger fresh elections.

- 'Tackling corruption' -

Pavol Babos, a political analyst with the Slovak Academy of Science, told AFP the new government is a marriage of convenience forged to avoid an early ballot, but the partnership is likely to last "at least until the end of the Slovak EU presidency" in December.

Zsolt Gal, a political scientist at the Bratislava-based Comenius University, said that tackling corruption would be among its most urgent tasks.

"Public procurement and the drawing of EU funds is riddled with corruption, it is a system-wide phenomenon in Slovakia," Gal told AFP.

Wednesday's coalition deal is in part a return to the 2006-10 partnership Fico forged with what was then a more stridently nationalist and xenophobic SNS.

Both parties campaigned on a staunchly anti-Muslim and anti-refugee platform, something analysts say paved the way for the extreme right Our Slovakia to enter parliament for the first time with 14 seats.

Its leader Marian Kotleba is known for harsh anti-Roma and anti-migrant views and for leading street marches with party members dressed in black neo-Nazi black uniforms. All parties have ruled out cooperating with him.

An ex-communist renowned for his strong populist streak, Fico previously cut food taxes, boosted childcare allowances, hiked the minimum wage and gave pensioners and student free train tickets to engineer a quick recovery after philanthropist Andrej Kiska beat him to the presidency in 2014.

But his generous spending has not bloated public debt. Slovakia's debt-to-GDP ratio hovers around 53 percent, among the lowest in the 19-member eurozone.

It boasts the world's per capita biggest auto-making sector and economic growth there hit a robust 3.5 percent in 2015.

Official projections show it is set to hover around 3.2-3.3 percent this year and next. Joblessness sank to a 10-year low of 10.4 percent in January.
Source :AFP