Anti-corruption March Organisers Want to Meet Prime Minister Fico
Bratislava, September 29 (TASR) – The high school and university students who organised the three anti-corruption marches so far are asking Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) for a meeting, delivering the application to the Government Office on Friday, TASR learnt on the same day.
The students can’t believe that the prime minister has a genuine interest in fighting corruption as long as Interior Minister Robert Kalinak (Smer-SD) along with Police Corps President Tibor Gaspar and Special Prosecutor Dusan Kovacik remain in their posts.
They also fail to understand why Fico is ignoring the demands of tens of thousands of people with respect to the fight against corruption, even though in other cases he is taking action as soon as the slightest shred of suspicion emerges. “When the country is bedevilled by corruption and suffers a low level of trust in state institutions, we believe that it’s the prime minister’s task to handle this,” said one of anti-corruption march organisers Robert Martin Hudec. The students would like to inquire at the meeting about the ways Fico plans to combat corruption.
Student David Straka, also behind the anti-corruption marches, hopes that the prime minister will oblige the request for a meeting and enable them to lead a constructive debate on how to address the demands of thousands of people. “For I believe that problems are dealt with differently in a normal country.”
Up to 75,000 people have signed the anti-corruption petition. “Once we manage to collect 100,000 valid signatures, it will be us who will directly ask Parliament to convene a session on a no-confidence vote in either the Special Prosecutor or the Interior Minister,” said Robert Martin Hudec.
In the wake of the third anti-corruption protest on September 25, Prime Minister Fico welcomed young people’s interest in public affairs and proclaimed his readiness to create appropriate conditions for them to deepen this interest.
The prime minister offered students an internship at the International Anti-Corruption Academy (IACA) based in Austria. “Following an agreement with the leadership of the International Anti-Corruption Academy based in Austria, he [Fico] is offering NGOs to select two university graduates dealing with the issue of transparency in public life to complete their studies with a full two-year postgraduate course with a focus on preventing corruption at this academy free of charge,” said the Government Office.
Fico is also ready to create conditions for a short training at this academy for a group of 15-20 secondary school and university students that could begin as early as in November.
