Recently, the term of three Constitutional Court justices has expired; and the Slovak parliament proposed six candidates to select their successors from. President Andrej Kiska chose a single justice to be appointed, Jana Baricová.
Baricová, currently a Supreme Court justice, was appointed the Constitutional Court justice on July 10 by Kiska, the TASR newswire wrote. Baricová took on her position by taking the oath before the president, accepting the decree appointing her, and by singing the oath and the acceptance. She said she felt honoured by the appointment and pledged to use her experience and knowledge to boost the elements of the rule of law, adding that there is always something left to be improved. Kiska wished her “a lot of strength, good sense and right decisions”, adding that he believed that she can contribute through her work to the improvement of the state of judiciary and public trust in it.
Kiska claims he has not felt permanent interest in constitutional law with the remaining five candidates, and thus he turned them down. In the upcoming days, he plans to discuss the situation with Speaker of Parliament Pavol Paška, TASR wrote.
It was strange that Kiska picked Baricová who was nominated by the head of the Supreme Court, Štefan Harabin, the Sme daily wrote after Kiska announced his decision. Kiska at the same time called on parliament to elect another four candidates so that he can pick the two remaining judges for the court, the SITA newswire reported. Kiska’s decision hit a raw nerve with Prime Minister Robert Fico and Speaker of Parliament Pavol Paška who claimed that the president did not act in line with the constitution. Paška also said he does not see any reason to meet Kiska’s request to submit additional candidates. Kiska has not offered any detailed explanation for why he picked Baricová.
(Source: TASR, Sme, SITA)
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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