President Kiska Rejects Pellegrini's New Cabinet

Bratislava, March 20 (TASR) – President Andrej Kiska announced on Tuesday that he won’t appoint a new cabinet in the composition that was proposed to him by designated Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini (Smer-SD), TASR learnt on the same day.

Kiska conveyed specific objections to Pellegrini and asked him to come up with a new line-up of nominees for government members by Friday (March 23). “He needs to convince [the public] that the new Cabinet will usher in changes that we’re all expecting to see. He needs to form a government, the staffing of which, particularly the interior minister, should manage to calm down the tense climate in society. A government that should be capable of convincing the public that it will ensure an unbiased and independent investigation into the murders of Jan Kuciak and his fiancee as well as into connections of organised crime that Kuciak wrote about,” said the head of state.

According to Kiska, years of appointing relatives, friends and business partners to public posts has created an unflattering picture of the state of public institutions in the eyes of the public. “People don’t believe that the top posts are taken over by individuals protecting the public interest,” declared the president.

Kiska added that the last thing Slovakia needs is another round of endless discussions and suspicions about who attended whose birthday party or went out riding motorcycles together. “As the head of state, I won’t allow this to happen – this is not the way to restore confidence. Therefore, I asked for a new proposal,” he claimed, adding that strict criteria must be applied for the formation of a new government.