Fico: Kiska Should Abstain from Attacking Slovakia

Bratislava, May 7 (TASR) – Head of the co-governing Smer-SD party Robert Fico, reacting on Tuesday to President Andrej Kiska’s statement for German daily Die Welt that Slovakia might be viewed as a mafia state, called on Kiska to abstain from verbal attacks on Slovakia abroad until the end of his term in office.

“President Kiska is grossly misusing his presidential post for the sake of purely partisan ambitions. No one is trying to take the post away from him, but the Slovak president shouldn’t travel abroad and attack the Government of his own country,” stated Fico at a press conference.

Kiska told the daily last week that that even though Slovakia is a proper EU-member state, when the shady connections between organised crime and Slovak politicians are taken into account, it might really seem that the country is a mafia state. He was addressing the activities of figures allegedly close to the Italian mob in Slovakia and the murder of journalist Jan Kuciak. He also criticised Fico, calling his behaviour when he was stepping down as prime minister arrogant.