Fico and Pellegrini Want to Oust Interior Minister
Bratislava, June 3 (TASR) – Opposition Smer-SD party leader Robert Fico wants to initiate a special parliamentary session with a no-confidence motion against Interior Minister Roman Mikulec (OLaNO) as the sole point on the agenda.
Fico has reacted in this way to the detention of head of the Interior Ministry’s Internal Affairs Inspectorate Adrian Szabo earlier on Thursday. He said that he wants to explain to the public just what the governing coalition is capable of at the session.
Fico spoke about efforts to silence the Interior Ministry’s inspection service, which is engaged in investigating suspicions stemming from a Slovak Intelligence Service (SIS) report. He sees the matter as an example of practices of organised crime aimed against the opposition and other people, asking who will be next.
The Smer-SD leader vehemently objected to the detention of a man “who wanted to tell the truth about a monstrous abuse of criminal law”. He plans to convene a party leadership meeting as soon as he arrives in Bratislava and propose initiating the aforementioned special parliamentary session.
Meanwhile, Independent MP and leader of the extra-parliamentary Voice-SD party Peter Pellegrini also called on Thursday on Interior Minister Roman Mikulec (OLaNO) to resign immediately in response to Szabo’s detention. Pellegrini added that MPs operating in Voice-SD are ready to express no-confidence in Prime Minister Eduard Heger (OLaNO) in Parliament.
The former premier said that the Government has lost control over the leadership of the security forces.
“The detention of the head of the internal inspectorate, who is supposed to investigate serious suspicions in a report of the Slovak Intelligence Service, is something we really can’t explain,” said Pellegrini. According to him, if his superiors were aware of the corruption of which Szabo is accused earlier, they should have acted immediately. It seems to him that there is a special group of investigators and prosecutors with unfair practices in Slovakia.
According to him, the post of interior minister should be left to someone who is able to bring back all the forces in the state under control, calm the situation, guarantee the investigation of all serious suspicions and hold somebody responsible. According to Pellegrini, MPs from Voice-SD would support a proposal to convene a parliamentary session to oust Mikulec that was announced by chairman of the opposition Smer-SD party Robert Fico.
The National Crime Agency (NAKA) detained Szabo on Thursday. The reason for his detention was suspicions that he abused the powers of a public official and of corruption.
