Premier Ludovit Odor respects President Zuzana Caputova's decision not to run for re-election in next year's presidential election. He posted on a social network that he admires Caputova for her courage to do what she thinks is the right thing to do.
Odor admires the President from both the personal and professional viewpoints. "She has always been and will remain an inspiration for many people in Slovakia, including me. Her decision definitely wasn't easy," he noted.
The extra-parliamentary Progressive Slovakia (PS) thanked President Zuzana Caputova for promoting the values of democracy, decency and equality for all, PS leader Michal Simecka said in reaction to the President’s decision. He's sorry about the president's decision not to run for the post again, but he fully respects it. He added that the fate of democracy does not rest on the shoulders of a single person. It will lie on the shoulders of all of us, who together want the values of democracy, decency and equality to defeat malice and hatred," he noted.
SaS chair Richard Sulik praised the work of President who has been holding the office in extremely difficult times.
The extra-parliamentary 'Democrats' party respects President Zuzana Caputova's decision not to run for re-election in next year's presidential election, adding that they're losing an ally in decent, calm and constructive politics in her. They issued a statement saying, "Slovak politics is overfilled with egos and loudmouths. President Zuzana Caputova has been bringing peace and help to people in politics. Her efforts to unite will be missing in public life. However, we fully respect her decision not to run for the post again. It's not a sign of weakness, but, on the contrary, of great strength of someone for whom power is not the highest thing to achieve. We wish Zuzana Caputova a lot of strength in her last year in the office."
The leader of non-parliamentary Hlas-SD Peter Pellegrini harbors no aspirations to become the Slovak President. Pellegrini accepts Caputova's decision and believes that she wasn't ready to handle the pressure coming with the presidential post, but understands her on a personal level. "I consider the President to be too young to be a political pensioner and I don't think that this is the decision that Slovakia currently needs, even though I'm not saying that she should have won the reelection," said Pellegrini.
Caputova's decision doesn't come as a surprise to Smer-SD. "Caputova has always turned her back on the Slovak people when they needed her the most. She conceded herself that she doesn't understand the country in which she lives," the party stated. “This decision didn’t surprise us. NGOs, financed from abroad, have already selected the next president who will thoroughly follow up on the liberal and anti-Slovak oriented foreign affairs policies of Andrej Kiska and Zuzana Caputova," added Smer-SD. The party did however wish the President a lot of luck in her private and work life once her mandate terminates.
Source: TASR
