Minister Mikulec Enjoys Trust of Both OLaNO and For the People

Bratislava, June 4 (TASR) – Interior Minister Roman Mikulec (OLaNO) has the full confidence of the OLaNO parliamentary caucus, caucus chairman Michal Sipos told TASR on Friday, adding that the minister consistently defends the public interest and is a guarantee of the police’s independence.

“We see [Smer-SD leader] Robert Fico’s announced attempt to convene an extraordinary parliamentary session to hold a no-confidence vote in the minister as escalating hysteria and fear of justice. Fico, Pellegrini and others obviously still live in their confused world where corrupted politicians could manipulate, misuse and even hand over the police to organised crime,” said Sipos.

Meanwhile, Minister Mikulec also has the trust of the junior coalition For the People party, Vice-premier and party chairwoman Veronika Remisova told TASR on Friday. Party’s vice-chairman Juraj Seliga sees no reason to hold a no-confidence vote in Minister Mikulec, stressing that the opposition Smer-SD party is trying to intimidate law enforcement bodies.

“We have courts that decide on guilt, we have courts that decide on custody… Not Mikulec! This no-confidence vote in the interior minister is nothing more than an attempt to intimidate police officers, prosecutors and judges! Many politicians are afraid that what they did in the past will be unveiled. They’re using Roman Mikulec today only to cover up their problems and their fear!” said Seliga.

“Minister Mikulec enjoys our trust, as do honest police officers and prosecutors. Slovakia really needs reliable and independent security forces,” said Remisova, pointing to systematic attacks on supervising prosecutors, to misinformation, misleading and lies of Smer-SD and Voice-SD representatives. “The results of investigations we know so far show that during the Smer-SD governments, the police were run by a group of so-called ‘our people’ with ties to oligarchs, the mafia and the past political establishment,” she said.

Smer-SD wants to submit a proposal next week to convene an extraordinary parliamentary session to hold a vote of no-confidence in the interior minister. The party wants the extraordinary meeting to take place during the regular session set to start from June 15. The opposition wants to oust Mikulec in connection with the situation in the security forces. Independent MPs operating in the extra-parliamentary Voice-SD party have also called on Mikulec to step down. The minister sees no reason to resign.