In the light of accusations made against interior minister Daniel Lipsic by attorney general Dobroslav Trnka about undue pressure on investigators, followed by the threat of opposition leader Robert Fico to call a vote of no-confidence on the minister, Lipsic has challenged them to go ahead with the vote.
Lipsic was accused of meddling with the investigation into a recording allegedly containing the voice of Robert Fico making statements that would incriminate himself and his party for illegal parallel financing.
Lipsic told SITA news agency that he was ready to defend the actions he had taken, pointing out that now attorney general Trnka has already denied claiming excess pressure on the investigator in the case and that the investigator herself has denied any pressure from her superiors.
Lipsic feels that Fico was just trying to influence the case himself by bullying and intimidating investigators in the hope of downplaying the whole case. Lipsic attacked Fico by saying that nobody was above the law, regardless of their relations with financial groups, and that under his reign at the Ministry of Interior, such practices would not be tolerated.
Lipsic sees no reason why Robert Fico should not prove his innocence by having the recording examined by experts. Since the recording was published in June, Fico has been claiming that it is a fake, although recently he admitted the possibility that it might be his voice in a manufactured recording.
Lipsic concluded by saying that Fico should have submitted the tape recording for examination to silence his critics, but that instead he had missed the chance to prove himself an upright politician by digging up the story about pressure on the investigator instead.