Labour, Social Affairs and the Family Minister Ján Richter will soon face a no-confidence motion in parliament for his involvement in the Star EU agency scandal and in state subsidies for a privately owned property seizure office, MPs Lucia Nicholsonová (Freedom and Solidarity-SaS), Alojz Hlina (Independent-Slovakia’s Citizens) and Richard Vašečka (Ordinary People and Independent Personalities-OĽaNO) said at a press conference on October 1.
The opposition has managed to collect enough signatures and wants to submit the proposal to Speaker of Parliament Pavol Paška on October 9. Paška will then have seven days to convene an extraordinary parliamentary session on the matter. The opposition sees two main reasons to oust Richter: a subsidy of €23,000 given in August to Rudolf Krutý’s Property Seizure Office with the aim of creating four new jobs; and a company called Star EU which won 70 tenders out of 70 concerning the drawing of European funds that were organised by local authorities following a recommendation given by then-Smer party general manager Richter to Smer mayors.
“If the state’s priorities include providing subsidies to property seizure offices, then we don’t share this vision,” said Hlina, as quoted by the TASR newswire.
“A person who is involved in such suspicions of corruption and cronyism has no right to hold the post of labour minister,” Nicholsonová said. “Such a person wouldn’t even think of applying for the post of minister in any decent society, or they would have resigned of their own accord immediately or after a call to that effect from the prime minister.”
(Source: TASR)
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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