Bratislava, March 6 (TASR) – The Defence Ministry and the Slovak National Party (SNS) view claims by the Opposition OLaNO party concerning the purchase of personnel carriers for the Slovak Army as mad conspiracies, TASR learnt from them on Tuesday.
OLaNO summoned a news conference earlier in the day to inform the public about corruption suspicions related to the firm from which Slovakia is about to buy the personnel carriers.
“Following appearances by [OLaNO leader] Igor Matovic and Veronika Remisova, we are seriously concerned about the health of OLaNO representatives,” the co-governing SNS wrote in its statement. “It’s impossible to react to these mad conspiracies in a professional manner,” stated the Defence Ministry, adding that it’s distancing itself from these statements.
SNS described Tuesday’s appearance by OLaNO as “really inappropriate”, calling on the party “not to misuse the deaths of two young people and to stop lying”. Defence Minister Peter Gajdos (SNS) has joined this call, at the same time urging the Opposition to refrain from defaming the ministry and SNS.
OLaNO told the media earlier in the day that Slovakia is about to buy personnel carriers from a firm that is suspected of corruption. In this connection, it called on SNS and the entire Government to halt the purchase. OLaNO claimed that the firm from which the Slovak army is supposed to purchase the carriers has been investigated due to suspicions of corruption in Croatia, Egypt and Slovenia.
OLaNO intends to ask about the Finnish arms producer and the aforementioned suspicions at a session of the parliamentary committee for supervising SIS’s activities. If it is shown that SIS failed in this case, its chief should resign, said Remisova.
