Jaroslav Naď / Sulík blocked the S-300 for Ukraine, wanted a Black Hawk helicopter for the Geissens – postoj.sk

Sulík blocked the S-300 for Ukraine, wanted a Black Hawk helicopter for the Geissens In exactly one week, the SaS party’s ultimatum for Igor Matovič to leave the government will expire. If the leader of OĽaNO does not comply, the SaS ministers will resign. Matovič is not going to resign, and even the liberals have not relented from their demand. The coalition leaders still have another meeting on the government crisis on Friday, but according to everything, nothing fundamental will change. The relations in the coalition, the demands of both parties and what will happen on the Slovak political scene after September 1 were discussed on Tuesday evening by Minister of Defense Jaroslav Naď (OĽaNO), MP Jana Bittó-Cigániková (SaS) and the chairman of the non-parliamentary Progressive Slovakia Michal Šimeček in the debate Evening of Marek Vagovič. For the S-300 for Ukraine, a helicopter for the Geissens, Bittó-Cigániková and Naď argued in the discussion about several issues from the past two years – from Sulík’s video about checks during the pandemic, to the purchase of the Sputnik vaccine, to voting with the fascists. The Minister of Defense also revealed the behind-the-scenes approval of the S-300 air defense system for Ukraine, which took place at the beginning of April. “Everything has already been agreed. I brought it to the coalition council, but it didn’t pass because Richard blocked it,” Naď describes. “It didn’t go through the first time, supposedly so we wouldn’t irritate the Russians. It didn’t happen a second time so that we didn’t get involved in the war in Ukraine. It didn’t pass the third time, because there certainly won’t be export licenses for it.” The minister revealed that they had special coalition councils for this and it took two weeks. “Ivan Korčok for pills, Martin Klus for pills, Richard blocked it. Is that so. Then he came to me and said that he will not block it because he sees that everyone else is behind it and that we will find a way. But the Geissens will come and the Black Hawk would need a helicopter,” Naď said in the discussion Večer Marek Vagović. The minister says that at first he was willing to do it because he wanted to help Ukraine and he set as a condition that he had to get official confirmation for the helicopter. He finally got it, but then, according to his own words, it seemed completely absurd. “Two days before the Geissens were supposed to arrive, I announced that I would not give the helicopter. It’s simply absurd. And so we didn’t do it.” Bittó-Cigániková responded by saying that she “knows the story completely differently”. However, she refused to say more about it. Slovakia donated the S-300 system to Ukraine in exchange for the fact that we received the battery of the Patriot anti-missile defense system together with American service personnel from the USA. President Volodymyr Zelenskyj and the head of the White House, Joe Biden, thanked Prime Minister Heger and the Slovaks for military assistance to the neighboring country. Naď: Sulík wrote to me not to go crazy and not to leave Minister Naď admitted in a discussion of Denník N at the beginning of August that he is disgusted with politics and is considering leaving. “I feel like I’m disgusted even more,” he says after almost three weeks. “Every day it grows in me. I am going through a difficult time in politics, but I am not running away from the fight. I will do it as long as I rule.” He claims that the first person to contact him after these statements was Richard Sulík. “He wrote to me not to go crazy. “You are an excellent minister, don’t think that you would leave, we are the first in line”, Naď quoted a message from the head of SaS during the Večer Marek Vagovič debate. He declared that he will definitely not leave the post of Minister of Defense after September 1. It is important for him that the correct foreign policy line of Slovakia is guaranteed. For this reason, he would be sorry if SaS nominee Ivan Korčok, whom he considers to be an excellent minister, left the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs. “If SaS leaves, which I honestly don’t want, it is also true that my further work in the government will depend on whether I will be a person who has the right to say something about who will be the minister of foreign affairs. I really wish that Ivan Korčok would stay, because he is not a party member. It would be unnecessary for him to leave, no one is throwing him out, we would all be ok with him staying. But, unfortunately, that probably won’t happen.” Jana Bittó-Cigániková repeated several times in the debate that all problems would be solved if Igor Matovič left the government. “Because he is the originator of the vast majority of the problems we have. Since the government was formed, it has been solving problems around one person.” When asked if it was okay to ask the strongest government party that its leader, who first left the post of prime minister, should now step down as a minister, she said: “You know, I was also sometimes a virgin and it no longer applies. Quite simply, things are changing and even OĽaNO no longer has the same percentage as it used to have, and we have many more deputies than we had.” Bittó-Cigániková: Without Matovič’s departure, we can’t talk anymore. Jaroslav Naď objected several times to the communication of Igor Matovič, who, according to him, communicates unnecessarily sharp, uses Facebook for things he shouldn’t and blames people even when he doesn’t need to. “I really don’t think it’s right and I tell Igor that too. Why do you think he took down the Volvo status? Because I wrote to the OĽaNO presidency group that this is not correct.” In the discussion, Marek Vagovič’s guests also talked about proposals to change the functioning of the coalition, which Prime Minister Heger brought to the meeting last week. However, according to Cigániková, it is useless to talk about them, unless the basic demand of the SaS is met – the departure of Matovič. “Without that, we have no reason to talk about other conditions.” Naj responded that he saw no reason why Matovič should leave his position in the government for the second time. He says that the statistics also show that he manages his department well. He also does not agree that the functioning of the government, where the atmosphere is mostly good, would be a problem. “We absolutely do not argue there, there is a constructive discussion, we come up with good solutions.” He also positively evaluates the functioning of the parliament. According to him, what troubles the country are the personal quarrels between Matovič and Sulík. “Not Igor, but the quarrels between him and Sulík are troubling the whole of Slovakia. If it means that they will both leave the government, then let them go. But I am convinced that it will only be moved to the level of the parliament and nothing will change.” One of Heger’s proposals for changing the functioning of the coalition was the exchange of state secretaries in the departments of economy and finance, which would ensure “cross control” between OĽaNO and SaS. Naj says that there was also a total exchange of ministries in the game. However, he personally thinks that it makes no sense to exchange resorts with each other in the current difficult period. “However, we gave it as a possibility that if it would be enough for SaS, we can talk about it.” The establishment of the so-called of an arbitration commission that would resolve disputes in the coalition, Naď considers it ridiculous. According to Heger’s proposal, each of the parties would have three votes in the commission, and if there was a tie, SaS would have the final say in the dispute. “It feels like kindergarten to me too, but sometimes it’s probably necessary in that coalition,” Naď assessed. Bittó-Cigániková: I don’t need to push it into early elections. In the debate, the politicians also talked about what governance could look like from September and what would happen after the possible elections. “If this government falls and there are early elections, Fico will be the strongest he has ever been,” Jaroslav Naď warns, adding that, according to him, the government of Smer, Hlas and extremists from the Republic is at risk. When asked what governance will look like after September 1, he said that he did not know. “But certainly no one – and I can swear to you – is not negotiating with the fascists or the MPs who came on their candidate list.” According to him, the deadlock is real, but he says that they will try to submit bills based on the Government’s Program Statement. “I assume that they will be supported by the overwhelming majority of deputies who formed the original 95-member majority in the parliament after the elections.” Bittó-Cigániková said that SaS will support reasonable proposals. “I have no need to push it into early elections, but if it escalates and we witness a worsening of the situation, then that is a problem. I personally believe that it shouldn’t be like that.” The SaS MP admitted that if there was a threat of a Smer, Hlas and Republika coalition after the possible elections, to which SaS, Hlas and PS would be an alternative, she would let party members vote on it. “In such a situation, saying a definite ‘no’ would be equally irresponsible,” says Bittó-Cigániková. PS head Michal Šimečka stated that there is no discussion in the party about a coalition with Hlas and he is surprised by media speculation that such cooperation is on the way.