AGRICULTURE Minister Stanislav Becík delivered his resignation letter to the Slovak president on September 9, the spokesperson for the president, Marek Trubač, told the SITA newswire, adding that it will be accepted and that a new minister will most likely be appointed in the following week.
The Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS), which has the right under the government’s coalition agreement to nominate the minister of agriculture, has chosen Vladimír Chovan, presently the head of the Slovak Agriculture and Food Chamber, to succeed Becík.
The reason why the HZDS asked Becík to resign from the ministry is reportedly that party leader Vladimír Mečiar was not satisfied with the appointments that Becík made to the new management board of the state forestry company, Lesy SR. Becík did not nominate persons close to the HZDS after nearly all of the previous managers were dismissed because of what the employees of the company called mismanagement and corruption.
The HZDS will expect the new minister to make personnel changes at Lesy SR, the deputy chairperson of the party told the TA3 news channel.
Chovan will become the fourth agriculture minister in Prime Minister Fico’s cabinet since 2006. The first minister, Miroslav Jureňa, resigned over questions about a controversial transfer of valuable lands in Veľký Slavkov and his successor, Zdenka Kramplová, resigned after media reported on financial gifts earmarked for the HZDS.
