Slovak centre-right parties agree on coalition

Leaders of four Slovak centre-right parties that clinched a parliamentary majority in the weekend general election yesterday signed a deal on a future coalition pushing for fiscal discipline.

"According to the declaration, I will be the future leader of the coalition" which has 79 seats in the 150-seat Parliament, Iveta Radicova, leader of the liberal SDKU-DS party, told journalists.

Slovak President Ivan Gasparovic on Monday asked incumbent Prime Minister Robert Fico to try and form a Cabinet first.

Mr Fico's left-leaning Smer-Social Democracy, pledging lavish welfare benefits and extra pensions, actually won the general election, gaining 62 seats on almost 35 per cent of votes.

But Mr Fico, who has until today week to form the Cabinet, has thin backing as he can only lean on support from the far-right Slovak National Party with nine seats. The leaders of the four parties - SDKU-DS, the liberal newcomer SaS, Christian Democrats KDH and ethnic Hungarian Most-Hid - yesterday confirmed they would not lead talks with Smer.

Ms Radicova said instead that today she would ask Mr Gasparovic to meet her, and that the four parties would present their shared programme priorities on Tuesday next week.

Ms Radicova is thus on track to become the first-ever female prime minister of the former communist country which joined Nato and the European Union in 2004 and the eurozone in 2009.