Nad Signs Order Depriving Danko of Rank of Captain

Bratislava, April 29 (TASR) – Defence Minister Jaroslav Nad (OLaNO) on Wednesday signed orders to cancel extraordinary promotions of politicians.

The order concerns, for example, former parliamentary chair Andrej Danko (Slovak National Party/SNS), who was promoted to the rank of captain, as well as former justice minister Tomas Borec (a Smer-SD nominee) who was promoted to the rank of colonel.

Meanwhile, Nad announced that an amendment to the law will be adopted that will make it impossible to engage in extraordinary promotions of soldiers in the reserves.

Nad noted that former defence minister Martin Glvac (Smer-SD) in February 2016 issued an order to promote ministers of Robert Fico’s (Smer-SD) then cabinet to the rank of colonel. The ministers were not promoted automatically; they had to have the ranks recorded with a district court. “Tomas Borec was the only one to do so,” stated Nad. Other cabinet members – Robert Fico, Lubomir Vazny, Miroslav Lajcak, Vazil Hudak, Marek Madaric, Jan Richter and Lubomir Jahnatek – didn’t have their ranks recorded. Glvac’s successor as defence minister, Peter Gajdos (SNS), promoted Danko to the rank of captain in the reserves in September 2016. This led to criticism from some media, fellow politicians and other figures. Danko claimed that he actually deserved the rank.

Nad described such promotions as unacceptable conduct and an insult to soldiers. According to him, military ranks shouldn’t be distributed to bigwigs and shouldn’t be an expression of politicking or political corruption. “Military ranks will no longer be distributed to politicians in the future,” he said.

SNS in its reaction stressed that its chairman Danko obtained no benefits from the rank of captain in the reserves. “He [Danko] respects the decision of minister Nad, as he respected the decision of minister Gajdos,” said SNS spokesperson Zuzana Skopcova, adding that Danko underwent basic military service in accordance with the Military Act in 1998.