Region: Radičová won't run in snap elections

By Beata Balogová

For the Slovak Spectator

Slovak Prime Minister Iveta Radičová has announced she will not seek re-election in March, ending the speculation about her future that has swirled throughout Bratislava since her government lost a no-confidence vote Oct. 11.

Radičová, whose government collapsed after losing a confidence vote over Slovakia's approval of changes to the eurozone bailout fund, decided not to seek the top slot on the election list of the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ), but she will remain prime minister until the snap elections are held in March. In addition, she remains one of the SDKÚ's deputy chairpersons, but she has remained somewhat tight-lipped about her future political prospects.

"We ended up with an unsuccessful confidence vote in the government," said Radičová, who also restated she considered her decision to make the vote on the eurozone bailout scheme a matter of confidence the right one. "This fact is too serious for me to make any decision other than the one I have just made."

Radičová added she does not plan to establish a new political party and described questions about a possible bid for the presidency in 2014 as premature.

Shortly after Radičová announced her departure, SDKÚ leader Mikuláš Dzurinda told reporters Radičová is not going to disappear and that she would lead the government until March.

The leader of the main opposition party, Smer's Robert Fico, immediately launched a ferocious attack on Radičová, calling her decision an "escape from responsibility."

Fico is thought to have engineered the entire scenario that led to the government collapse. After  SDKÚ coalition partner Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) announced it would not support the eurozone bailout vote despite pleas from Radičová and the support of the rest of the governing coalition, Fico said he would support the eurozone vote, but only in exchange for new elections. Radičová then decided to tie the eurozone issue to a no-confidence vote and the measure was soundly defeated. A new vote was held days later, this time with the support of Smer, and the measure was approved, making Slovakia the last eurozone country to pass the expansion of the bailout fund.

Analysts said the prime minister was understandably shaken by the loss of confidence in her government.

"What led her to the decision [to quit] is most probably that she has assessed her prime ministerial performance as unsuccessful, though I think her Cabinet was among the most successful in terms of defining and pushing for reform," said Grigorij Mesežnikov, president of the Bratislava-based Institute for Public Affairs. "On one hand, she demonstrated leadership, but on the other hand, she tried to do so in a way that would not make relations confrontational."

Fico called the developments that led to the current situation "a natural outcome of the failure of the concept of a broad coalition" and suggested Radičová had "failed personally and politically."

"She is a weak prime minister who isn't able to govern," Fico said, adding Radičová was shirking her responsibility for the chaos in the state and for what he called corruption scandals.

Fico's attacks are expected to be vicious throughout the election season, but Radičová's announcement means he loses his biggest target, giving rise to the notion her decision not to run was one made with her party in mind.

"Fico, for the second time in two years, has lost his target shortly before the elections," Mesežnikov said. "First [in 2010] he lost Mikuláš Dzurinda and was quite frustrated because of that, and then he de facto lost the elections. He was now ready to attack Radičová as the prime minister, but now she will not be on the candidates list."

Mesežnikov noted attacks on rivals who are no longer part of the electoral competition have much less effect.

The SDKÚ was quick to announce its leaders had invited party members who would like to lead its list of candidates to submit their names for primaries. If no one shows an interest, the party's chairman, Dzurinda, will automatically head the SDKÚ slate in March.

Before the last parliamentary elections Dzurinda withdrew from his party's candidate list after some unanswered questions about the SDKÚ's previous funding methods were reopened by Fico. However, in a recent interview with the daily Sme, Dzurinda said he feels ready to make a comeback.

"I have significantly paid the bill for the problems from 10 years ago," Dzurinda told Sme. "I haven't felt this moral strength for a long time."

Dzurinda's long-term ally Ivan Mikloš, who ran unsuccessfully against Radičová in primaries ahead of the last parliamentary elections in 2010, will not run for the top post on the slate. Nor will Justice Minister Lucia Žitňanská, another of the party's deputy chairpersons.

The writer can be reached at news@praguepost.com