Speaking to TASR newswire, head of the Smer-SD party and former prime minister Robert Fico proposed an unorthodox solution to how the key post of Attorney General should be filled, saying the power to select and appoint someone could be given to the President alone. Quite a good idea given the long amicable relationship Fico has had with current President Ivan Gasparovic.
Fico is playing the presidential card also in relation to the appointment of Jozef Centes, who was nominated by the governing coalition and duly appointed in parliament for the post in June last year, but President Ivan Gasparovic has been abusing a loophole in the Constitution, which does not stipulate by when he must decide on the issue.
Now Fico is saying he will wait on the President’s decision and then parliament can either respect it or propose a new candidate, while not forgetting to point out how the President has been acting in line with the Constitution and how nobody could force him to make the decision. Fico also made it clear that he didn’t want the President to appoint Centes as “he is a purely political nominee of the outgoing government” , a curious comment since the post has always been filled according to the parliamentary majority, i.e. by who holds power.
So even though Jozef Centes was appointed in a valid blind ballot in parliament, petitions to the Constitutional Court to cancel its force were rejected, and the President subjected to criticism from various corners for stalling, the key post remains vacant still, because the secret of Slovak politics is apparently to find the loopholes and utilise them to the full.
Ha! Robin Hood Fico.
Lets have a look at what the world thinks of you.
Slovakia’s credit rating downgrade – Standard and Poor + Moody’s : “The reason behind Slovakia’s credit downgrade are the political risks associated with the fall of the Slovak government.”
In plain English, they don’t like the fact that Fico and SMER will win the next election. Fico wins – you will all be paying more to get him out of his own problem!
Expert review of transparency and anti-corruption in Slovakia: ” SMER and SNS, the two opposition parties in pariament, were ranked worst as they had supported VERY FEW of the legislative proposals, positively evaluated by the experts, that were submitted to parliament. The experts added “” The anti- corruption agenda was torpedoed the most by SMER in parliament”
The 13 experts, from 3 independent organisations, also added ” that the only difference between SMER and SNS was in the number of absent MPs during votes on anti-corruption measures.
So it would appear that anti-corruption legislation is so far down this mans’ agenda that he and his fellows would rather have a duvet day.
Democracy level remains unchanged in Slovakia : The Institute of Public Affairs gave SK it’s highest score since 2008 but pointed out that ” We consider the way the constitution was ammended, ( driven through by Fico and SMER) , to have been inappropriate for a consolidated democracy……..”
What amazes me is that, according to the most recent polls, this clown will almost certainly form the next government, presumably free to continue robbing the poor to the benefit his rich friends.
I read in The Sme daily , that Pan Trnka had urged a halt in an investigation started by military prosecutors of allegations in the Gorilla file when the battle between him and Jozef Centes to be chosen as general prosecutor was starting. Trnka allegedly advised the military prosecutors to stop their investigation in a letter on April 12, 2011.
“Without the intention to induce you how it should be decided in the respective matter, I want only to tell you to study stipulations of the Penal Code regarding halting criminal prosecution,” Trnka wrote.
Sme claim they have the Trnka letter !
Sme wrote that Trnka had argued that the file was a fictitious, a falsehood and did not actually exist …..or was alternative , created with the aim of extorting persons who are mentioned in the transcripts. WHY WOULD HE SAY THAT ?
Trnka refused to comment on the letter, Sme wrote.
WHY AM I NOT SURPRISED !
The military prosecutor who led the investigation at that time, also refused to comment to Sme other than to say that her bosses had told her not to provide any information to the media. The military prosecution stopped its investigation of the Gorilla file in August 2011 we are told .
What Robert `Robin Hood` Fico ….in jail , behind bar, what ???
…Cor blimmy mate, he`s a diamond and salt of the earth is our Robert …I am so grateful he stopped all those wicked SPP Plyn people from plundering our bank accounts with massive rises in the gas price for 4 years ….that was our Robert that did that !
Oh and he gave the poor OAP`s a pension rise …of 2 euro a week and changed the Law , so those invading Hungarians cannot have a Slovak passport .
Thank Gowwd for our Robert , the saviour and defender of all Slovakia .
Cue Loghead ….
“Centes is a purely political nominee ” – who nominated and appointed Trnka? the fairy king! Fico is another contender for a long spell behind bars but only if the Procurator is not one of his puppets!
The first job of any new right wing government is to have the current President arrested at the end of term in Office . This man has abused his position for too long and was a purely political nominee of the former Fico government.
BTW , how is Slota and the SNS getting away with this racist and bigoted poster campaign ?