Slovak President Kiska Calls For Early Elections To Avoid Crisis Of Confidence

Slovakia President ANDREJ KISKA

Bratislava, March 4 (CTK) – Slovak President Andrej Kiska proposed today “a vast and essential” reconstruction of the cabinet of Robert Fico or an early general election as a way out of the crisis of confidence in the state following last week’s murder of journalist Jan Kuciak and his girlfriend.

 

Kiska will discuss the government’s future with political parties in the days to come, he said in a statement that TV stations broadcast live from the Presidential Palace in Bratislava.

 

“The last thing our society would need now is a political spectacle on TV screens, performed by the top constitutional officials,” Kiska said, explaining why he has decided to cancel his TV address scheduled for tonight, now that PM Fico (Smer-Social Democracy) and parliament chairman Andrej Danko (Slovak National Party, SNS) have decided to give similar TV addresses each of their own.

 

Kiska said he has discussed possible ways out of the serious political crisis with Fico. “However, it has turned out that our opinions differ,” he said.

 

He said on Friday, when the Slovak people paid homage to the murdered victims, he felt determined to start a painful process of correcting the state, which is faced with huge distrust of people.

 

The distrust is justified. “Limits have been crossed, things have gone too far and there is no way back. We can see the arrogance of power,” Kiska said.

 

He said he cannot play down the current atmosphere stifling the country, where people’s feeling of the state injustice seems almost absolute.

 

Even if any motive of the murder appeared, including an incidental one, a large number of people are convinced that the tragedy mirrors the Slovak reality, Kiska said.

 

“This is a horrible image of the [Slovak] republic after 25 years of its existence. There is something foul under the surface. There is something foul in the very foundations of our state,” Kiska said.

 

He said he had waited for a week to see what steps the government coalition would take to restore people’s confidence in the state, but no solution or a plan seem to be emerging, which is why he has decided to launch negotiations with political parties about their idea of the government’s future.

 

“I can see two alternatives – a vast and essential reconstruction of the government, which would not polarise the society, or an early election,” Kiska said.

 

He asked people to trust the investigators who are enquiring into the case of the murder of the young couple, whom an unknown perpetrator shot dead in their house in west Slovakia.

 

In his last, unfinished article, Kuciak wrote about the business and possible subsidy frauds on the part of Italian entrepreneurs in eastern Slovakia, who are linked to mafia and had previously ties with persons close to PM Fico.

 

Several aides of Fico have resigned from their posts at the Government Office in recent days.

 

Fico’s government is comprised of his Smer-SD, Danko’s SNS and the Most-Hid party, which said on Friday it is going to consider its departure from the government coalition.