BRATISLAVA, June 21, (WEBNOVINY) — According to opposition leader Robert Fico (SMER-SD), the ruling coalition wants to bring the courts and the prosecution service under its control. Fico further said at Tuesday’s news conference that behind this effort is the need to have courts and the prosecution under its control, in order to be able to react to concrete displays of social dissatisfaction. He underscored that in February 2003, railway employees declared a lawful strike, while then-Interior Minister Daniel Lipsic ensured that a regional court issued an injunction to halt the strike. Later, the Constitutional Court decided that the strike was legitimate and the injunction was not in line with the law.
If Justice Minister Lucia Zitnanska and Prime Minister Iveta Radicova (both for the SDKU-DS party) talk about a fight with the courts today, they do so in order to have an instrument in their hands if social unrest such as that in 2003 comes. “Another reason is that that the government is going down the drain, as it is losing the elementary support of the public. It wants to take the path of criminalizing the opposition, but for that they need subordinated police, prosecution service, and courts,” Fico added. According to him, they want to gain public support by throwing it meat and blood and putting someone from the opposition behind bars.
SMER is concerned about the attacks on the Constitutional Court, too. According to him, whenever the coalition dislikes the court’s ruling, it accuses it of being pro-opposition, as the opposition elected its judges. Fico finds protracted court proceedings the most serious problem of the Slovak judiciary. That is what Justice Minister Zitnanska should concentrate on, he stressed.
SITA