Fear and purges. What Heger's government fall might mean for open corruption cases

With a new government, changes in the police would be very likely.

Peter Pellegrini (left) and Robert Fico (right)Peter Pellegrini (left) and Robert Fico (right) (Source: Sme)

When Robert Kaliňák of Smer became interior minister after the fall of Iveta Radičová's government in 2012, he immediately started re-hiring people who had left the police force under his predecessor Daniel Lipšic .

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Today, several former officers describe how Smer and the oligarch Norbert Bödör controlled the police.

The fall of Eduard Heger 's government could bring about even more radical changes than those in 2012. Surveys show that the Hlas party would be decisive in forming the government after the elections. Smer has already offered to join the coalition with Hlas, and Sme Rodina did not rule out they would cooperate, too.

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The leaders of all the three parties - Robert Fico of Smer, Peter Pellegrini of Hlas, and Boris Kollar of Sme Rodina - are critics of the police that had investigated or are still investigating them and their MPs.

For example, the till recently prosecuted head of Smer , Robert Fico, openly says that he wants to hold accountable the investigators, prosecutors and judges who decided against his people. He most often mentions Special Prosecutor Daniel Lipšic.

"This is not a threat. We will make every effort in parliament and we will also make all the necessary initiatives towards law enforcement authorities so that you leave the Special Prosecutor's Office in great shame, because you are a disgrace to the rule of law," Fico told Lipšic in parliament in October.

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The Sme daily came up with an outline of the possibilities where the new government would have to intervene in the investigation of sensitive cases.

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