CTK
Up to date 6/15/2024 3:39 PM
The brand new Slovakian President Peter Pellegrini took the constitutional oath and took workplace on Saturday. In his inaugural speech, he said that Slovakia is in a tough time when long-term certainties, together with the knowledge of peace, are breaking down. In reference to the conflict in Ukraine, which has been resisting the Russian army invasion for greater than two years, he stated that the decision for peace just isn’t a celebration of the aggressor.
“We should ensure that we’ll do the whole lot to realize peace and by no means permit additional enlargement of the army battle past our borders. The need for peace is pure and positively not a celebration of the aggressor,” stated Pellegrini. In response to him, Slovakia desires to assist Ukraine in order that it could get pleasure from a simply peace and subsequent restoration.
Within the pre-election marketing campaign, Pellegrini defended the choice of the present Slovak authorities to cease army support to Ukraine from state reserves. He additionally spoke out towards the Czech cupboard’s choice to droop intergovernmental consultations with Slovakia in response to differing opinions on some overseas coverage points.
“We did not succeed. Slovakia is split,” stated Pellegrini after the inauguration. He additionally emphasised the necessity for a powerful state that may handle its residents. He additionally spoke about Slovakia’s “sovereign voice” within the European Union and the North Atlantic Alliance and stated he would work on relations with Slovakia’s neighbors.
In relation to the Czech nation, he talked about the household connections of Slovaks. He then referred to as the Could assassination of Prime Minister Robert Fico a blow to Slovakia.
Along with parliamentarians, members of the federal government, former Slovak presidents, diplomats and different invited visitors took half within the ceremony on the premises of the Slovak Philharmonic within the middle of Bratislava. Amongst them was former Czech President Miloš Zeman and former Czech Prime Minister and Bratislava native Andrej Babiš. Each supported Pellegrini within the Slovak presidential marketing campaign. The opposition Slovakia motion of ex-prime minister Igor Matovič introduced prematurely that his representatives wouldn’t come to the inauguration, as a result of invitation of a consultant of the Russian embassy, which the motion once more criticized for its army invasion of Ukraine.
The 48-year-old Pellegrini, who defeated the diplomat Ivan Korčok within the direct election of the president from the place of the speaker of the parliament and the ruling social gathering Hlas-social democracy (Hlas-SD), changed Zuzana Čaputová within the workplace. She didn’t apply for one more five-year mandate.
After taking the oath, Pellegrini obtained the very best state award that belongs to him as president. His inauguration was accompanied by strict safety measures. Within the neighborhood of the Slovak Philharmonic constructing, the police deployed a big variety of their officers and members of the state safety and put in cellular boundaries. Pellegrini waved to his supporters after arriving on the inauguration web site.
Already on Monday, Pellegrini will go to an off-the-cuff EU summit, the place he’ll characterize Prime Minister Roberto Fico. He’s recovering from the gunshot wounds he suffered after the assault by an murderer in mid-Could. Pellegrini will go to the Czech Republic in June.
For a few years, Pellegrini labored within the Smér-social democratie (Smér-SD) social gathering of the already four-time Prime Minister Fico. He left his facet along with a number of colleagues in 2020 and based Hlas-SD. After final yr’s early parliamentary elections, their winner, Smér-SD, fashioned a authorities coalition with Hlas-SD and the nationalist Slovak Nationwide Occasion. In the beginning of June, Pellegrini resigned as chairman of Hlas-SD, solely suspended his membership within the social gathering, and the social gathering congress established the place of founding chairman of Hlas-SD.
In February of this yr, in the course of the vote of the decrease home, as its chairman, he supported adjustments within the felony regulation, which have been criticized by Čaputová, the Slovak opposition and European establishments and which triggered a sequence of anti-government demonstrations in Slovakia.
In response to the structure, the Slovak president has slightly restricted powers. Nevertheless, it could, for instance, return authorised legal guidelines to the decrease home, which then votes to override the presidential veto. Nevertheless, for instance, some selections of the outgoing cupboard, by which the parliament expressed no confidence, are topic to the approval of the pinnacle of state. This case final occurred within the nation the yr earlier than final. Just a few months later, Čaputová appointed an official cupboard that led the nation to early elections.
