Robert Fico, Ján Slota, and Vladimír Mečiar agreed on the list of new ministerial state secretaries and with replacing Slovak intelligence service SIS director Ladislav Pittner.

According to Prime Minister Fico, the Slovak cabinet will appoint most of the state secretaries on July 19, though not all of them.

"There will still be discussion over some state secretaries," he told newswire SITA.

Smer will have 13 state secretaries, the Slovak National Party (SNS) will have seven and the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) will hold six state secretary posts. However, cross supervision among coalition partners will not be maintained at all the ministries.

The names of some candidates were published on the web pages of individual ministries, although Prime Minister Fico only wanted to reveal their names once cabinet okays them on July 19.

Most local media also brought out lists of the names of the new state secretaries, suggesting that there will be some "interesting" names in the posts.

The SME daily noted that former Justice Minister Daniel Lipšic once said that it would be scandalous if Martin Glváč, the new state secretary at the Construction Ministry, did not feel ashamed of his contacts with the underworld. Glváč later sued Lipšic for the statement.

According to former PM Mikuláš Dzurinda, Glváč was one of the main sponsors of Smer.

According to Pravda, Glváč is the former partner of Fedor Flašík, with whom he worked at the firm Donar. During the regime of Vladimir Mečiar the firm received tens of millions of crowns from the Culture Ministry.

Ivan Sečík is expected to become state secretary of the Culture Ministry. Current Smer deputy Jaroslav Baška should become number two at the Defense Ministry while Jozef Buček is slated to become the Interior Ministry's state secretary for SMER-SD. Emilia Kršíkova should act as state secretary for the Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Family, with Peter Žiga nominated for the Economy Ministry and Peter Kazimír for the Finance Ministry.

Compiled by Martina Jurinová from press reports

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