Rezeš stays at Transpetrol

ALTHOUGH PM Robert Fico said that he disliked some of the coalition’s nominations to firms co-owned by the state, Július Rezeš, nominated as a state representative in the supervisory board of oil transportation company Transpetrol by the ruling Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS), will stay in his new job.

Following a meeting of the coalition board yesterday, Fico maintained that Rezeš’s nomination was not acceptable to him. However, the ruling HZDS said it stood behind its nominee and that it would take full responsibility for its choice. According to Fico, the matter is thus closed.

Július Rezeš, son of Alexander Rezeš, a Mečiar-era privatizer from the mid 1990s, led the VSŽ steelworks as part of what was then called the “kinder management” which took the company into a gradual decline. Apart from his extensive business activities, Július’s father Alexander also served as Transport Minister under the previous Mečiar government and was a generous sponsor of the HZDS party.

Mečiar insisted, however, that Július Rezeš is “educated, ambitious, young, and a good manager”.

“It seems unjust to me to prosecute a son because of the father,” said Mečiar during the coalition board meeting according to Sme daily.

Former PM Mikuláš Dzurinda said that the board appointments at Transpetrol represent a display of arrogance by the new Fico government.

"It took us by surprise. It's an arrogant, insensitive display of power, and contemptuous of public opinion," Dzurinda said at a November 22 press conference.

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