The confirmation of the governor of the National Bank of Slovakia, Petar Kažimír, in office for the next term or the addition of judges of the Constitutional Court could be agreed in one package with the approval of the state budget. This was said by the Minister of the Interior and the chairman of the Hlas-SD party, Matúš Šutaj Eštok, in the STVR O 5 minut 12 talk show.
- The coalition wants to conclude personnel nominations before the budget is approved.
“I believe, since we also have a debate on the budget, that we will also have these personnel issues settled in one package before we approve next year’s budget. It is, I think, a general agreement even within the coalition, because we are aware of these things,” said Šutaj Eštok. According to him, Kažimír was historically the best finance minister and he also has the trust of the management of the European Central Bank.
The minister sees the topics of the nomination of MPs Miroslav Radačovský (not classified) and Petr Kmec (Hlas-SD) for the posts of ambassadors in Cyprus and Italy as being excessively presented in the public space. “We’ve been dealing with ambassadors here for two or three weeks. I don’t remember in history, and I’ve been following Slovak politics from a young age, that we’ve ever dealt with any ambassador here. And I’m sorry, if Ms. Magda Vášáryová could be an ambassador, then anyone can be an ambassador,” said Šutaj Eštok.
Member of the National Council of the Slovak Republic and chairman of the opposition Christian Democratic Movement Milan Majerský thinks that Šutaj Eštok trivializes the case. He countered that the ambassador does not represent himself, but the entire country. At Kmec, he recalled his appeal for the purchase of the former Voderada outlet for a significantly higher price than the owners offered on real estate portals, and he criticized Radačovský, for example, for his statements during a hearing in the NR SR committee.
Politicians did not even agree on the proposed changes to the law and the abolition of the possibility of voting by mail from abroad. While Šutaj Eštok claimed that it was a minority issue and tried to prove it by the low number of people registered from abroad for the upcoming referendum, Majerský reproached him that if the number of votes from abroad was higher for the governing parties, they would not have dealt with the topic.
Šutaj Eštok and Majerský, on the other hand, had the same opinion on the referendum, which will be held on July 4. Politicians called the referendum, in which it is to be decided whether Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) should have a life annuity and whether the Office of the Special Prosecutor and the National Criminal Agency should be renewed, a “promotion” of the extra-parliamentary party Democrats for 12 million euros.
