Jan Slota Accused Media of Making a Fuss Over his Statements

The media impatiently expected the outcome of talks on Thursday between Prime Minster and SMER-SD chairman Robert Fico and Slovak National Party (SNS) leader Jan Slota. They met for the first time after in a brief interview with SITA earlier this week the leader of the junior ruling party said that the SNS and the People's Party -- Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (LS-HZDS) want more posts in the cabinet to better reflect the distribution of parliamentary seats. "We want redistribution of central power," stated Mr. Slota on Tuesday.
However, after a 30-minute meeting with the prime minister he told journalists that did not discuss this matter at all. He said that "it was a certain opinion that was again taken out of the context." "One talks with someone for half an hour and a journalist extracts one sentence from it," complained Mr. Slota. He added that every political force tends to strive for as many ministries as possible. It is always about that somebody wants and somebody gives, he said. "So far, we did not find this space [for giving and taking -- editor's note]," stated Mr. Slota.
Silvia Glendova, the spokeswoman for Prime Minister Robert Fico said that it was a regular Thursday meeting of the prime minister with Mr. Slota. They meet each Thursday when their working programs allow. She said that Mr. Slota's statements were not on the agenda of the meeting. "They spoke about the current political situation," she added.
On Tuesday Mr. Slota told the SITA newswire that cabinet seats have to be redistributed according to the ratio of parliamentary seats. "The ratio is not good," he said. He specified that the SNS would like to control the defense department while the LS-HZDS is interested in the Health Ministry. The three coalition parties SMER-SD, SNS and LS-HZDS divided cabinet posts between them at a ratio 11:3:2 after elections in June 2006.