BRATISLAVA, October 29, (WEBNOVINY)- The political fairness watchdog Fair-Play Alliance has come up with an initiative urging parliamentary deputies to replace the incumbent Prosecutor General Dobroslav Trnka and to not protect the untouchable. The alliance calls on MPs to elect a trustworthy person in the prosecutor general election who will bring a basic reform of the prosecutor office. The watchdog urges political parties and their MPs to stop playing power and lobbyist games. It underscores in its initiative that in the country with such extensive trampling down on the law, abuse of power and steeling of public funds the state’s prior interest should be to thoroughly prosecute crimes. The alliance believes that the prosecutor office is here to protect and represent such interests. However while a a group of those untouchable and unpunishable will exist here hundreds of millions of euros will be siphoned away from the budget and citizens will not be able to rely on rule of law and justice in Slovakia, it added. The Prosecutor General Office led by Dobroslav Trnka does not fulfill these demands and even failed on this mission, thinks the alliance, which published the initiative at its webpage
The alliance demands that the prosecutor office is able to guarantee professionalism, principled attitude and secure prosecution of crimes regardless to party affiliation, the size of bank accounts or cronies. The existence of the untouchable throughout the whole political sphere is unacceptable, writes the alliance. Moreover, it wants that somebody protects money paid by taxpayers. Therefore the alliance perceives the prosecutor general post as one of the most important and currently also one of the most necessary. They urge each parliamentary deputy to publicly declare which candidate for the post s/he will support, as declaration of respect towards citizens.
Election of a new prosecutor general divided the four-party ruling coalition. Three parties, the SaS, Christian Democrats and MOST-HID, proposed a joint candidate, Eva Misikova, currently a prosecutor serving at the Office of the Prosecutor General. MOST-HID leader Bela Bugar had previously suggested that the three parties would support a candidate of SDKU-DS but the strongest member of the ruling coalition had failed to come up with one. However, two of its MPs tabled their proposals; Jana Dubovcova nominated the Prosecutor at the Special Prosecutor Office, Jan Hrivnak and Stanislav Janis backed the incumbent Prosecutor General Dobroslav Trnka. Moreover, Trnka’s nomination was supported by the strongest member of opposition SMER-SD. According to Bugar, if coalition deputies vote for Trnka together with opposition, it could mean the beginning of the end of the coalition.
Prime minister Radicova respects the majority nomination of the three coalition parties, Eva Misikova. She indirectly rejected Trnka, when she said that an opposition party will not make personnel policy decisions for the ruling parties. According to the head of KDH Jan Figel, the fact that Misikova’s nomination was signed by 51 deputies needs to be taken into account.
SITA