Schuster's Press Conference after the SOP Congress

BRATISLAVA (SITA) - The Party of Civic Understanding (SOP) excludes whatever possibility of post-election cooperation with the governing Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) under Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar. If after the parliamentary elections the current opposition would not be in a position to form a government, the SOP would join its ranks as an opposition political party, said Schuster at a press conference following the founding congress of the SOP in Bratislava on Sunday. However, the SOP has an ambition to win constitutional majority in Parliament together with the other opposition parties in upcoming parliamentary elections, said Schuster. Representatives of the SOP rejected all allegations of links with private TV Markíza, and according to Schuster, the private TV had not organized the first press conference of his party in February of this year. Schuster denied claims that the SOP has above-standard media space in Markíza. The founding congress of the Party of Civic Understanding (SOP) elected the Mayor of Kosice, Rudolf Schuster as the new party chairman. Former minister of foreign affairs in Vladimír Mečiar`s government Pavol Hamžík and the Mayor of Banská Bystrica, Igor Presperín were elected deputy chairpersons. The delegates also elected a national board of the party and a nine-member presidium. Two seats on both bodies remain vacant. The congress took place in Bratislava on Sunday. Almost 250 delegates attended the event to elect the party's leadership, the statutes, and political program.