The Slovak National Party (SNS) announced at an extraordinary press conference on March 10 that it has recommended its nominee in the post of Minister of Construction and Regional Development, Igor Štefanov, to not resign despite a call issued by Prime Minister Robert Fico for him to do so, the TASR newswire wrote.
Štefanov, who was present at the press conference along with SNS chair Jan Slota and party first vice-chair Anna Belousovová, said that he does not see any reason to resign over issues for which his predecessor was responsible. Fico called on Štefanov to step down over failures that the Supreme Audit Office (NKÚ) discovered in the use of funds spent under the so-called notice-board tender. For more info about the tender and NKÚ inspection, see:
NKÚ begins inspection into bulletin-board tender at Slovak Construction Ministry
Government Office press department director Braňo Ondruš told the TASR newswire that Fico will propose that President Gašparovič should commission Education Minister Ján Mikolaj (from SNS) to head the ministry on a temporary basis until the elections on June 12.
The Slovak president is slated to dismiss Štefanov on March 11 at 11:00, the president’s spokesman Marek Trubač told journalists on the evening of March 10. The date of Štefanov's ouster was agreed upon between Gašparovič and co-ruling SNS party leader Ján Slota at a meeting that was held shortly before Trubač broke the news. SNS has no intentions to leave the governing coalition in protest against Štefanov's dismissal TASR reported. TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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