OLaNO-NOVA Wants to Ban Military Promotion of Active Politicians

Bratislava, January 23 (TASR) – Politicians who have gained their military ranks while actively serving in politics should be automatically deprived of them, OLaNO-NOVA leader Igor Matovic told a news conference on Monday, adding that his movement plans to submit an amendment to the law on conscription governing the granting of military ranks to active politicians.

OLaNO-NOVA is reacting with its draft to the promotion of Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) to the rank of colonel and Parliamentary Chairman Andrej Danko (Slovak National Party/SNS) to the rank of captain. They have been promoted by several ranks.

“We will submit an amendment that would automatically strip persons of the military ranks they were promoted to as active politicians in an amoral manner over the past few years. Our amendment will apply to all politicians who let themselves be promoted to higher ranks in an insidious way during their active service in politics. We would demote all of them by law,” said Matovic. The amendment should declare null and void decisions by any minister who promoted an active politician.

MP Eduard Heger (OLaNO-NOVA) said that the draft will be based on rules that currently apply to active soldiers. “We want to bring about an unambiguous definition on how reservists should be promoted, since it’s not specified by the law at the moment. What’s most important is that reservists are not preferred in any way. If a professional soldier can be promoted by one rank at most, the same should apply to reservists, too,” explained Heger.

The amendment has no chance of succeeding without support from the governing coalition. OLaNO-NOVA has not discussed its draft with the coalition parties.