The Slovak National Party (SNS), one of the coalition partners, wants its nominee to be among the top leaders of the Police Corps. Speaker of Parliament and SNS chairman leader Andrej Danko does not rule out changes to various state administration posts but he rejects speculations that SNS wants to have its nominee take over the police, he told the TASR newswire on April 20. SNS would like to appoint Police Presidium specialised services department head Jaroslav Malík to the post of police vice-president, according to Danko.
This department has activities that acquire, collect and evaluate classified information on crimes and perpetrators. Apart from police officers, the department also has a network of police agents, including civilian business people who infiltrate various interest groups, the SITA newswire wrote.
“The coalition council hasn’t discussed nominees to the police corps or to individual financial and tax bureaux yet,” Daniko explained. “Our goal will be to de-politicise the state administration. I reject the media speculations, although I cannot rule out that personnel changes will occur on several posts.”
If these changes take place, they will be made by ministers and aimed at securing the independence of institutions, particularly the police. “It’s important, especially for the investigation of individual scandals,” he said for TASR. He added, as quoted by SITA, that it is important to exclude political engagement and to guarantee impartiality of such institutions crucial for investigation of scandals and problems.
