Three parliamentary opposition parties - the SDKÚ, SMK and KDH - will initiate a no-confidence motion in newly-appointed Construction and Regional Development Minister Igor Štefanov, it was announced after a meeting of the parties on Wednesday, April 15.
“He doesn’t have our confidence, as we know that in his previous post [section director at the ministry], he was significantly involved in the scandals that caused damage to Slovakia and led to Minister [Marian] Janušek’s departure,” SDKÚ leader Mikuláš Dzurinda told the TASR newswire, referring to a controversial tender worth €120 million awarded to a consortium of two companies - Zamedia and Avocat – which are both close to Slovak National Party (SNS) leader Ján Slota. Janušek was a nominee of the SNS, as is Štefanov. Dzurinda added that the opposition parties will start to collect the 30 MPs’ signatures needed for the motion to proceed on Thursday, April 16.
Štefanov, who assumed the ministerial post earlier on Wednesday, has been described by the media as Janušek’s right-hand man at the ministry. Janušek resigned as minister over the tender, which two official investigations had found to be flawed. Prime Minister Robert Fico had said three months ago that he would sack Janušek if the enquiries carried out by the Supreme Audit Authority and Public Procurement Office found faults, which they did. TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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16. Apr 2009 at 10:00
