BRATISLAVA, March 22, (WEBNOVINY) — The winner of elections, SMER-SD, which will form a new one-party government, wants to maintain parliament’s right to decide whether to allow detaining a member of parliament by the police and issue remand order against members of parliament after parliamentary immunity is canceled. “SMER-SD does not have a problem with cancellation of deputies’ immunity from criminal prosecution and prosecution of an MP without parliament’s approval. Consideration of required parliament’s approval of taking an MP into custody or detention is another issue,” said SMER-SD MP Mojmir Mamojka for SITA news agency. He opines that it would not be correct to remove completely deputies’ protection, which would push them literally to some sort of basement. SMER indicated after elections its intention to cancel deputies’ immunity from criminal prosecution.
Chairman of the Ordinary People and Independent Personalities party Igor Matovic is disappointed by SMER-SD’s proposal. “We agree with cancellation of deputies’ immunity from criminal prosecution but I am displeased with SMER’s intention to weaken the measure by additional conditions,” Matovic told SITA on Thursday, adding that it would not be complete cancellation of deputies’ immunity from criminal prosecution. “It would be something between cancellation and preservation of deputies’ immunity. It would be the first step, which would have to be followed by the second, more substantial, step in the future,” he added.
KDH MP Radoslav Prochazka thinks that the SMER’SD’s proposal is factually good, “It secures equality before the law on one hand and preserves the minimal protection necessary for prevention of potential abuse of criminal prosecution instruments that may affect execution of parliamentary deputy mandate in a way that has already happened before in the federal parliament,” maintains Prochazka. He opines that SMER’s proposal is a reasonable and functional compromise between equality before the law on one hand and protection of MPs on the other.
SITA