Independent MP Alojz Hlina physically attacked Smer MP Anton Martvoň September 4 after the latter remarked that Hlina’s restaurant served alcohol to minors under 18. At this remark, Hlina ran at Martvoň, grabbed him by the throat and shouted at him to look into his eyes.
“I fell off my chair and he threatened me,” said Martvoň about the attack, adding that he intends to submit the case to the parliamentary mandate and immunity committee. Martvoň said, as quoted by the TASR newswire, that Hlina’s behaviour was outrageous.
“He acts like a big democrat, but he won't let other people speak their opinions. When they want to do so, he attacks them,” Martvoň said.
Hlina argues that he didn't actually attack the Smer deputy. “If I had attacked him, he would have been in hospital,” Hlina told TASR, adding that Martvoň inhabits a world in which it is okay to offend and humiliate women. “In my world, when a man insults another man, he's asking for trouble,” Hlina said.
Physical attacks don't belong in parliament and won't be tolerated, Speaker of Parliament Pavol Paška said in response to the attack. “He [Paška] will draft an amendment to the Rules of Procedure as early as during the current session in reaction to the negative experiences and rising aggressiveness that we have seen in the Parliament in recent days,” Paška’s spokesman Pavol Chovanec told TASR. According to Chovanec, the motion is to be designed as a contribution to the stability, order and preservation of political culture in the parliament.
Hlina’s behaviour drew condemnation not only from government MPs but also opposition colleagues. “Martvoň is a nutcase. On the other hand, he told Hlina the truth and Hlina reacted like a psychopath," said MP Igor Matovič (Ordinary People and Independent Personalities-OĽaNO), according to TASR, adding that physical attacks have no place in parliament.
(Source: TASR)
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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