“EVEN at the cost of politic retirement, I would never agree with a NATO military base in the territory of the Slovak Republic,” said Prime Minister Robert Fico in the interview with the Nový čas tabloid daily on September 13.
Slovak President Andrej Kiska offered to allies to build a logistics base in Poprad for use by NATO after the end of the NATO summit in Newport, Wales on September 5.
Even as Slovakia joined NATO it does not mean that it has to have military bases with foreign soldiers in its territory and he would initiate referendum about such issue in a case that “someone would force us to do that”, said Fico, as quoted by Nový čas.
Meanwhile a petition against the placing of NATO logistic base in the town has started to circulate in Poprad. To announce referendum the municipality needs to receive at least 30 percent of eligible voters living in the town which is around 12,500 people, according to the SITA newswire.
(Source: SITA, Nový čas)
Compiled by Roman Cuprik from press reports
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