On July 14th, Sme daily reported that the firm of the partner and the father of Deputy Speaker of Parliament Martin Glváč of Smer bought an apartment from a company which falls under the influence of tycoon Ladislav Bašternák, suspected of tax frauds worth millions of euros.
Sme daily obtained this information from the cadastre department of the Bratislava district office.
Sme has been asking about the price of the apartment for several weeks. Glváč promised to provide details but later refused to do so, according to Sme.
Session on recalling PM Fico postponed indefinitely Read more His spokesperson Martin Čambalík stated that the price for one square meter was above the average which was then around €1,000, the daily wrote.
“If a politician does not provide information in such a situation it can easily happen that voters will see his silence as a need to cover something unfair,” Peter Kunder of the Fair-play Alliance told the daily.
The statement accusing him of being tight-lipped about the price for the apartment was too much for Glváč. In his response, he claims that in order for the Sme journalist to get her story straight, he informed her that the price of a square metre for the flat was higher than the average as calculated by the Slovak central bank. The average price of a square metre hovered between €944 and €1,050 in 2006.
Police raid Bašternák’s premises Read more “Despite my statement, the reporter wrote that I am keeping quiet about the price of the flat near the Koliba [area],“ Glváč wrote.
He also complained that Sme recently wrote that he is a neighbour of Bašternák. In his June 24 statement he wrote that there are several independent blocks of flats in the flat complex at Tupého street and Bašternák’s flat is not in the block where Glváč lives.
“Today’s [July 14] story is another reason to file a criminal complaint against the journalist and for a lawsuit against Sme daily,” Glváč wrote.
