Opposition PS, KDH and SaS organised a protest in response to the plan to abolish the Special Prosecutor's Office on Thursday. (source: Sme - Marko Erd)
Welcome to your weekly commentary and overview of news from Slovakia. The plan to abolish the special prosecutor meets with criticism at home as well as in Brussels. A former police chief – and now Smer MP – faces more charges. A fiscal consolidation package goes to parliament as a ratings agency downgrades Slovakia’s credit.
If you have a suggestion on how to make this overview better, let me know at michaela.terenzani@spectator.sk.
Fico’s plan faces protests
“We’re just going to abolish it,” Prime Minister Robert Fico said, despite the backlash provoked by his government’s decision to make changes to the prosecution system, including scrapping the Special Prosecutor’s Office – a step that observers have described as an act of revenge. More than 40 people linked to previous Smer governments have been convicted in recent years; most of the cases were brought by the Special Prosecutor’s Office.
The government approved the draft legislation to scrap the office at its session on Wednesday. Not even an offer by Daniel Lipšic, the current special prosecutor, to resign – which he proposed at the last minute on Tuesday and then again on Friday – was enough to avert the move. The government wants the Special Prosecutor’s Office to disappear by mid January. General Prosecutor Maroš Žilinka, who has had a prickly relationship with Lipšic in the past few years, announced that his office had already started preparing to take over the cases. The agenda and personnel of the Special Prosecutor’s Office would be absorbed by the General Prosecutor’s office.
