L-R INterior Minister Denisa Saková and Police President Milan Lučanský (source: Sme - Jozef Jakubčo)
The interim Police Corps President Milan Lučanský will not be replaced by someone chosen under new rules in the autumn or at the end of the year – as originally promised by the cabinet. This process will now take place at the beginning of 2019, the Interior Ministry has admitted, as reported by the Sme daily.
The Ministry submitted a new draft bill on the police force in mid-April when Tomáš Drucker was the minister. Since then, the bill which does not even have the full support of the coalition parties, has been stuck under inter-departmental review.
The ministry, led currently by Denisa Saková, has been struggling to complete the process. It promises to evaluate the review “in the near future”, Sme wrote on July 2, adding that it is mainly the junior coalition partner, the Slovak national party (SNS) which disagrees.
What are the new rules about?
The new rules primarily see any police president – as well as the head of the police inspectorate – being chosen, not just by the interior minister, but rather in two rounds and with two public hearings before the parliamentary committee for defence and security.
Candidates will be selected by a seven-member committee comprising of Interior Ministry nominees and also people from the General Prosecutor’s Office and the labour unions. Ultimately, the Minister would agree on the outcome with the committee – in which the ruling coalition has a majority.
Draft has critics
This proposed model has already been criticised by the opposition and even by some members of the current coalition. The Slovak National Party (SNS) is the strongest opponent of the model, especially criticising the seven-year term for the police president and preferring a four years plus four more system.
Prime Minsiter Peter Pellegrini admitted, according to Sme, that the coalition has not concluded this issue yet and that a compromise will still have to be found.
