The Slovak Christian and Democratic Union (SDKU_DS) is suffering from serious internal bleeding. Its Chair, Pavol Frešo, has urged all party members who are thinking about leaving to do so as soon as possible. His statement has come after last week the party lost another wave of senior members, including former vice-chairs Martin Fedor and Viliam Novotny, former Education Minister Eugen Jurzyca, and the heads of Bratislava and Banská Bystrica regional branches. Speaking ahead of a meeting of the party presidium on Tuesday, Frešo emphasised that he wants a stable party by the end of the year. "While some have resolved their dilemma as to whether to leave or stay in the party, others have gone public with their concerns, spreading a feeling of mistrust among ordinary members of the party and among voters", he said.
Over the course of the past two years SDKU has seen several prominent members leave the party, including Lucia Žitňanská Miroslav Beblavý, Magdalena Vášáryová, as well as former party leader Mikuláš Dzurinda and Ivan Mikloš. Some of them have joined other newly formed parties while others have stayed as independent MPs. Most of them quoted disagreements with party Chair Pavol Frešo as their primary reason for leaving. In early December its preferences stood at 2.1%, almost half of what they had only a month prior, according to the latest survey published by the Focus polling agency.
