BRATISLAVA, October 4, (WEBNOVINY) — The SMER-SD leader and ex-PM Robert Fico surprisingly discovered the topic of justice after four years at the helm of government, Justice Minister Lucia Zitnanska stated on Tuesday. She responded to a shower of Fico’s criticism of crucial changes to the Slovak judiciary initiated by the minister. “He started pretending as if the previous four years of his rule were a bed of roses for all inconvenient judges, as if no bulling lawsuits existed, as if diplomats did not attend those disciplinary trials, as if the problem of nepotism did not exist at courts, as if we forgot about the aim of written message [to a judge from her superior — SITA note] and influencing of court decisions,” stated Zitnanska, a nominee of the SDKU-DS.
Fico claims that the judiciary has never been so destabilized as it is under the current minister and Cabinet. “During the fourteen months she has been Justice Minister, Lucia Zitnanska did not deal with anything else than eliminating Supreme Court President Stefan Harabin, politicizing the judiciary and securing [influence in] the prosecution service,” Fico said. According to him, the reason is that the Cabinet wants to control the judicial system in order to criminalize the opposition as they are unable of presenting any program. “Courts and the prosecution service are being ‚normalized‘ in the spirit of the seventies in the last century,” stated Fico.
Before the strongest opposition party initiates the no-confidence vote in the minister SMER-SD Chairman Robert Fico gives her two options before they proceed this far: improving the situation in Slovakia’s judiciary, as his party accuses Zitnanska of being responsible for its current woes, or leaving her post voluntarily.
SITA