President meets opposition leaders

In a democratic state, the opposition must be allowed to carry out its basic function, which is the supervision of the governing power and this must be reflected in the distribution of posts in Parliament, President Peter Pellegrini declared after his Tuesday meeting with leaders of opposition political parties.

"The governing coalition should enable such an arrangement and the opposition should nominate relevant candidates to these posts, those who are capable of acquiring confidence from the majority of lawmakers," stated the head of state, who pointed out that reservations against specific names had been voiced several times during nominations in the past. "Having Parliament functional and capable of passing laws to the benefit of the public must be a higher interest for the coalition and opposition than personal ambitions or unfulfilled political ideas," underlined Pellegrini.

The President added that he doesn't have powers to interfere with internal disputes in Parliament.

Representatives of the opposition praised the President after the meeting for his willingness to hold a dialogue with the opposition, although they criticized him for his inability to organise a joint coalition-opposition meeting that would signal the effort to bring the divided society together. They also warned that the President shouldn't only talk about the need to address the real problems of the people, but also demand to see actions to that effect from the coalition.

Source: TASR