As the crucial April 6 second round of presidential elections approaches in Slovakia, statements by its Moscow-sympathizing prime minister, Robert Fico, are confirming his government’s reputation as Europe’s new problem child.
During a visit on Thursday to the Ministry of Justice in Bratislava, Fico made a thinly-veiled threat against judges on the country’s Supreme Court who have in the past ruled against Fico’s political colleagues and allies in criminal cases.
“My council of advisors is monitoring developments very closely regarding the decisions of the competent bodies in these cases,” Fico said. “Today we asked the minister a very simple and legitimate question: How is it possible that the body that most frequently violates human rights in Slovakia is one of the [judicial] panels of the Supreme Court?”
This is the best summary I could come up with:
As the crucial April 6 second round of presidential elections approaches in Slovakia, statements by its Moscow-sympathizing prime minister, Robert Fico, are confirming his government’s reputation as Europe’s new problem child.
“Today we asked the minister a very simple and legitimate question: How is it possible that the body that most frequently violates human rights in Slovakia is one of the [judicial] panels of the Supreme Court?”
Justice Juraj Kliment, who leads the three-member Supreme Court panel that Fico criticized, condemned the prime minister’s words as a “direct and wholly unsubstantiated attack on the independence of the judicial branch,” and called on judges across the country to stand up to such threats.
Michal Vašečka, a political analyst at the Bratislava Policy Institute, accused Fico of “trying to create a mafia state … where the primary goal is to keep the pyramid of power functioning.”
The day before Fico’s justice ministry visit, the PM’s chief advisor, MP Erik Kaliňák, nephew of Defense Minister Robert Kaliňák, said he had asked the deputy director of Slovakia’s secret service, Pavol Gašpar — the son of indicted former police chief Tibor — to “conduct a deep audit of the financial connections of Slovak media, as well as of the personal bank accounts of individual Slovak journalists including those standing here.”
That threat came after the Czech BIS intelligence service released information earlier this week that Voice of Europe, a pro-Russian news website, had been used by Moscow to influence European politics, including by making payments to active politicians in member countries.
The original article contains 664 words, the summary contains 256 words. Saved 61%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Just like the USA.
