Democrats Leader Criticizes Opposition Parties Over Coalition Building Strategy

Juraj Šeliga, deputy chairman of the extra-parliamentary Democrats party, criticized the liberal Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) and Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) parties for their approach to opposition coalition building. The 35-year-old former deputy speaker of the National Council, Slovakia's parliament, warned that if these parties "stick their heads in the sand" during efforts to unite opposition forces, they should not claim they want to defeat Prime Minister Robert Fico. Šeliga was a prominent figure in the For a Decent Slovakia civic initiative and previously ran for the For the People party in 2020. His comments come as Slovakia's fragmented opposition faces pressure to coordinate ahead of future elections against Fico's ruling Smer-SD party, which has dominated Slovak politics for much of the past two decades.