Pavol Paska Won't Have State Funeral, Family Refuses It

Bratislava, April 7 (TASR) – Late ex-parliamentary chairman (in office 2006–10 and 2012–14) Pavol Paska won’t have a state funeral as his family refuses this idea, TASR was told by Beatrice Szaboova, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini (Smer-SD).

“According to our information, Pavol Paska’s family doesn’t want a state funeral and the premier respects their decision,” she told TASR.

The Government Office on Friday (April 6) after the death of the former parliamentary chair said that the Cabinet was ready to decide on organising a state funeral. But Paska’s family should have had the last word.

Paska died of a heart attack at the age of 60 at Kosice’s Railway Hospital with a Polyclinic on Friday morning. Born in Kosice in 1958, the former Smer-SD vice-chair headed the Slovak Parliament twice. In his second tenure he stepped down from the post of parliamentary chair in November 2014 in the wake of a scandal involving the overpriced purchase of a CT scanner by Piestany Hospital (Trnava region). Paska also served as Smer-SD vice chair between 2003-2016.