Democracy must be consistently protected, nurtured and fought for, outgoing President Zuzana Caputova stated during her farewell visit to Germany on Tuesday.
Caputova discussed the values of democracy and current political developments with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. "Democracy must be protected, we shouldn't give up on it but fight for it. It's necessary to stick together, support each other across the countries and maybe even continents," Caputova told reporters by the Berlin Wall Memorial.
The Slovak head of state touched on the situation in Slovakia following the presidential election. "In Germany, they register, of course, changes in the rhetoric, when it comes to relations to Ukraine, for instance, or issues concerning the rule of law," said Caputova.
Caputova noted that the thing she will miss about the presidency are meetings with such distinguished and clever people as Steinmeier.
She is slated to visit Brussels next and meet with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg both to discuss the current geopolitical situation and to thank him for his cooperation.
The President added that until the end of her tenure on June 15, she will have an intense programme in the form of foreign visits and to make her farewell with Slovakia as the president. One of her farewell foreign trips might be even to Ukraine as a neighbouring country. "It's one of the options," she stated.
Caputova told reporters that she had already had a telephone conversation with president-elect Peter Pellegrini, to whom she had congratulated on his election and signalled her readiness to meet with him and offer him any cooperation in practical matters.
(TASR)
