BRATISLAVA, November 21, (WEBNOVINY) – There have never been such efforts to politicize the prosecution as there are in the current election of the Prosecutor General, thinks deputy leader of the strongest opposition party SMER-SD Robert Kalinak. He pointed out the situation seven years ago when Dobroslav Trnka was elected Prosecutor General „across the board“, meaning by votes of both the coalition and opposition MPs. „We were then in the opposition, we found a candidate who suited us, and supported him. Today, it is being turned into a political game, which is extremely dangerous,“ said Kalinak on air of private television Markiza, in Sunday’s political debate program Na Telo. According to him, the part of the ruling coalition which does not want to propose a candidate who could be accepted generally “across the board” on the basis of his previous “life as a prosecutor”, is turning this election into a game.
Deputy Gabor Gal, who represented the coalition party MOST-HID at Coalition Council meetings devoted to candidates for the post of prosecutor general, stated that from the start they had trouble agreeing on concrete names, but did agree that the coalition wants a change on the post. „But not only in the person, also in terms of performance and operation of the whole Office of Prosecutor General”, Gal said. According to him, the coalition is still trying to find a common candidate. „It’s about finding a person whom we can guarantee the votes of all coalition deputies”, he added.
Kalinak criticized that fact that the election of the prosecutor general is being associated with a potential collapse of the government. He stressed that the prosecution has to be independent. According to him, the prosecutor general should be supported by votes of the coalition as well as opposition and “will then have no interest in preferring one side, or covering up cases of one side and on the contrary, purposefully investigate cases of the other”.
Gabor Gal rejected Kalinak’s allegations that the prime minister has politicized the election. “She does not interfere in selection of the candidates at all,” he said. He hopes that the Coalition Council will select a common candidate for the prosecutor general on Monday.
Kalinak did not rule out the possibility that SMER-SD would support the coalition’s candidate if he was good enough. “When a person comes about whom we are sure with regard to his past operation”, said Kalinak and added that perhaps it is time to discuss whether to open the possibility to run for the post of prosecutor general also to strong attorneys at law, in addition to prosecutors.
SITA