A statement by Ondrej Dostál, a parliamentary deputy for the Most-Híd party, generated the first controversy on the floor of the newly established Slovak Parliament, the SITA newswire reported.
As new parliamentary committees were formed, Dostál took the floor to say that he finds it a bad joke that an SNS nominee is to preside over the Parliamentary Human Rights Committee. SITA wrote that he said that it is the same situation as if Vasil Biľak (a senior official of the former Communist regime) became director of the Nation’s Memory Institute or if Ján Slota was to manage a rehabilitation centre for alcoholics.
"I respect the opposition's right to their own nominations," Dostál said, as quoted by SITA, but added that he simply cannot support the proposal to install SNS vice-chairperson Anna Belousovová to the post.
Belousovová said she is going to file a criminal complaint against Dostál over his statement related to Biľak. She asked him when the SNS had stirred hatred and xenophobia. She labelled him and his colleagues from the Civil Conservative Party (OKS) rats.
"You have not reached five percent but you want to preach what is good and what is evil," she said. She added that Dostál and people around him have no place in the Slovak parliament as they reject all that is Slovak.
She said she would file a criminal motion against Dostál since she feels offended by his statement. Dostál answered that he is not allergic to Slovakia but to extremism. He said he welcomed the motion to file a criminal complaint against him and recommended that the house scratch the deputies’ parliamentary immunity and suggested that Belousovová support such a proposal.
Source: SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
