Bratislava, March 6 (CTK) – Financier George Soros has distanced himself from the statements by Slovak President Andrej Kiska who said on Monday that an early election should be held or the government reshuffled due to the general loss of confidence in society, daily Hospodarske noviny writes today.
Kiska said so in connection with the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee.
Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-Social Democracy, Smer-SD) criticised Kiska on Monday for his meeting Soros last year and said Kiska was siding with the opposition.
“The events that have occurred since the murder have a certain hand-writing. I would like to ask Kiska a simple question: September 20, 2017, New York, 5th Avenue. I ask why the head of state paid a private visit to a man with a very dubious name. The man is called Soros,” Fico said, adding that neither any representative of the Slovak foreign ministry or the Slovak ambassador were at the meeting.
Kiska’s spokesman Roman Krpelan said with his conspiracy theories, Fico was trying to divert attention from the political crisis.
The opposition and Most-Hid, a minor coalition government party, also criticised Fico for what he said.
Via his spokesman, philanthropist Soros distanced himself from Kiska’s words and demonstrations in Slovakia.
As far as the comments by PM Fico are concerned, Mr Soros plays no role either in the recent speech by President Kiska or in recent demonstrations in Slovakia, Hospodarske noviny cites Soros’s spokesman Michael Vachon as saying.
Soros also commented on his meeting with Kiska in New York.
He said he had met Kiska during the U.N. General Assembly in September 2017 and that they had debated the efforts to improve the integration od the Roma community in Slovakia. Kiska was accompanied by his advisers and Soros was in contact with his son and chairman of the Open Society Foundations (OSF).
“What has happened since the murder of Kuciak and his girlfriend indicates that there is an attempt at a total destabilisation in this country,” Fico said, declining to answer questions from journalists at a press briefing on Monday.
Instead of trying to install calm, Kiska is creating destabilisation by his statements, he said.
“Diverting attention by conspiracy theories does not relieve Fico of the responsibility to deal with a deep political crisis or to free his place to someone who is able of it,” Krpelan said.
Kiska will start the talks about the ongoing crisis with party leaders on Wednesday.
On Sunday, Fico said Kiska’s proposals with which to deal with the current situation “evidently had not been drafted in Slovakia.” He added on Monday that the hand-writing of Kiska’s speech “was from elsewhere.”F
Kuciak and his girlfriend, both 27, were shot dead in their house in Velka Maca village, west Slovakia, in late February. The police said Kuciak’s work as an investigative journalist might have been the motive of the crime.
In his last, unfinished article, Kuciak described the activities of Italian businesspeople linked to mafia in eastern Slovakia, and also their alleged ties with Fico’s aides. Several aides of Fico have resigned from their posts at the Government Office in recent days.
The opposition and Most-Hid demand the resignation of Interior Minister Robert Kalinak, a member of Fico’s Smer-Social Democracy. Kalinak has refused to take the step.
Soros was in the focus of the campaign before the forthcoming election in Hungary. Its Prime Minister Viktor Orban has accused Soros of trying to flood Europe with migrants.