Slovakia’s strongest opposition party, the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ), is not able to answer all journalists' questions about the party's financing in the early days of the party a decade ago, said SDKÚ head Mikuláš Dzurinda at a press conference in Bratislava on January 26 – adding that he's sorry about this, as he would like to furnish proof that the party has always been aboveboard, the TASR newswire wrote.
Dzurinda was responding to accusations made on January 22 by Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer), who suggested that SDKÚ was engaged in some shady financial dealings in 2004 and 2005, using shell companies and foreign bank accounts.
Dzurinda said that his party has always acted in accordance with the law. He noted that when these financial transactions occurred in 2000 that publication of the names of sponsors and creditors was not yet mandatory.
“It was us [Dzurinda’s government] who passed laws which made party financing more transparent. In addition, we have a regulation in the SDKÚ statutes concerning financing that is stricter than the actual law,” he told TASR, adding that he personally was never interested in party financing.
Dzurinda also claimed that “it is clear and undoubted that we have borrowed money and repaid it ... not impairing the state for a single helier”. Dzurinda considers Fico’s accusation to be an “extraordinarily despicable construct”, the main goal of which is to divert the focus from the government's own scandals.
After Dzurinda’s press conference Prime Minister Robert Fico released a statement presented by Braňo Ondruš from Government Office press department saying that SDKÚ committed political suicide in a live broadcast and admitted to money laundering. Ondruš said that Fico will make further comments concerning this issue over the course of Wednesday. TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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