Hrabko: Lipsic Would Be Called Murderer in Parliament
Bratislava, September 22 (TASR) – OLaNO-NOVA MP Daniel Lipsic’s assumption that he wouldn’t be able to perform his MPs’ mandate properly following the fatal road accident he was involved in has its logic, analyst Juraj Hrabko told TABLET.TV on Thursday.
Lipsic, who when driving his car on Monday (September 19) night struck an elderly pedestrian who subsequently died in hospital, announced at a press conference earlier this day that he would give up his seat in Parliament by the end of this month.
“If he remained an MP, he’d find it difficult considering the ‘quality’ of MPs. They’d be telling him off and calling him a murderer, even though it isn’t certain at the moment at all whether he caused the accident or not,” said Hrabko.
If police conclude that Lipsic wasn’t at fault, then he’s set a really high standard here, and then he’d also be able to restart his career, believes Hrabko.
“However, if he’s proven guilty or at least party guilty, then I think that he’s finished in politics for good,” said Hrabko.
Meanwhile, OLaNO-NOVA chairman Igor Matovic may be stripped of his MPs mandate over the fact that although he as an MP has suspended his trading license twice while an MP, there was a window of 21 days in 2013 between the two suspensions, which, under the law, is grounds for a penalty. Moreover, his trading licence was automatically revived this month again, but Matovic didn’t do anything with that, claiming that his legal analysis stated that it wasn’t necessary. As this is Matovic’s second transgression against the Conflict of Interest Act, Parliament should vote on stripping him of his mandate, noted Hrabko.
So, if both Matovic and Lipsic are out of Parliament, while Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) chairman Richard Sulik has opted for retaining his European Parliament post – even though he spends most of his time in Bratislava – rather than join the Slovak Parliament after March’s general election, it will create an interesting situation for the parliamentary Opposition.
“The so-called Opposition leaders will simply disappear from Parliament,” Hrabko pointed out.
