The leadership of the Party of European Socialists (PES) decided Thursday to resume candidacy of the ruling SMER-Social Democracy Party of Prime Minister Robert Fico for full-fledged membership in the party. SMER-SD-Deputy Chairman Vladimir Manka informed SITA newswire about the news from Brussels. He specified that French and Belgian Socialists were against resumption of SMER-SD's provisional membership; however, other factions supported the party.
SMER-SD wrote in the statement presented by spokeswoman Katarina Klizanova-Rysova that they are taking note of the PES decision. SMER-SD is where it has always belonged. Now the party can continue concentrating on securing strong economic growth and construction of a social state. "These are our priorities, not the ravings of the destructive Slovak opposition," suggests the party in its stance.
PES suspended SMER-SD's provisional membership after the elections in June 2006. They decided to take this measure against SMER-SD when it formed a government with the nationalistic and xenophobic Slovak National Party (SNS) and Vladimir Meciar's People's Party-Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (LS-HZDS). SNS's Jan Slota, however, expressed unambiguous satisfaction with the PES decision, which, in his words, acknowledged that SMER-SD is at the avant-garde of social democracy in Europe. "It would be shameful if the party was marginalized because of the SNS," Mr. Slota told SITA. He underscored that SMER-SD is a standard, elected democratic political party that behaves like any other party in Europe. "The socialists had no other option, as they did not want to make themselves ridiculous before the eyes of all of Europe," he said.
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