THE LARGEST ruling coalition party, the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ), does not support the nomination of judge Peter Paluda to head the National Security Office (NBÚ), SDKÚ parliamentary caucus chair Jozef Mikuš announced after a caucus meeting on May 11, the TASR newswire reported. Paluda was nominated by Freedom and Solidarity (SaS).
“We had a long and open debate and I have to say that Mr Paluda did not gain the support of a majority of the caucus,” Mikuš told TASR. He refused to comment on the reasons expressed by caucus members for withholding their support from Paluda, saying only that it would not be appropriate to make public statements.
Paluda is an expert in security issues, crime, and criminal and European legislation. He has served as a prosecutor in Banská Bystrica, as a Supreme Court judge (since 1994) and as Slovakia's representative at Eurojust (2004-07).