Ódor for ta3: We should have kept our mouths shut, but the higher VAT is here. The government is taking the easy way for itself and the hardest way for the people

Prime Minister Robert Fico and Finance Minister Ladislav Kamenický said that if the opposition, namely Progresive Slovakia, were in power and pushed through the measures from the so-called Lego cubes, it would ruin the welfare state. This is a set of about a hundred measures worth nine million euros, which the bureaucratic government of Ľudovít Ódor prepared for the next one.

"It is a rather ridiculous claim. We have prepared this to help the new government to be able to choose. We didn't know at the time whether a right-wing or a left-wing government would come in, so we put in both tax and spending measures," Ódor explained to ta3.

In 10 months, he said, Fico's government has proved that it will not save on itself and will shift the burden of consolidation to ordinary people in Slovakia. "I think this is a very sad statement. They have increased their salaries and for everyone else it is a VAT increase to 23 percent," Ódor said in Strasbourg, where the European Parliament has been debating for the last few days.

We will all feel the increase in prices

He said that the increase in VAT from 20 to 23 per cent would bring dramatic price increases and that this would be felt by everyone - pensioners, mothers with children and self-employed people.

Fico promised in April 2024 that he did not intend to increase VAT. "We see that Fico is lying to his own voters basically every week. It is not surprising to me. First they said they wouldn't use anything made of lego bricks, but there's VAT. They said that they were only going to consolidate minimally, so that no one would be affected, and we are supposed to shut up. That's what the Prime Minister said and that's what he said to me personally," he commented on the government's decision to consolidate in this way.

He thinks that the government is going downhill, they give a tired impression, they are only after revenge and "they have given up on all the people of Slovakia".

The MEP and former Prime Minister recalled that he had been present during two very difficult consolidations. "The way we always did it was that first we dealt with spending and tried to find everything we could, and then we dealt with taxes. This government is taking the absolutely easy road for itself and the hardest road for the people," he assessed.

Watch the full interview with Ľudovít Odor by the foreign editor Róbert Zoľák.