Justice Minister Mária Kolíková (source: SITA)
Opposition MPs have initiated a special session for Monday, May 10 to remove Mária Kolíková (Za Ľudí) from the post of justice minister following suspicions concerning the business of her family company. Kolíková says that she sees no reason to resign and all coalition parties have declared that they would not support her ousting. Nevertheless, the senior coalition party OĽaNO claims that Kolíková has not cleared up all doubts.
OĽaNO will inform Prime Minister Eduard Heger (OĽaNO) about their doubts after his return from the two-day European Council summit in Portugal on Saturday, May 8. They will also write these concerns down and submit them to her so that she can address them.OĽaNO will inform Prime Minister Eduard Heger (OĽaNO) about their doubts after his return from the two-day European Council summit in Portugal on Saturday, May 8. They will also write these concerns down and submit them to her so that she can address them.
Heger will meet with Kolíková as well as OĽaNO deputies after his return from Portugal.
"I will listen carefully to all reservations, arguments and explanations," Heger indicated in his statement, as cited by the TASR newswire. "Following their evaluation, I will make a decision."
Kolíková explains
“I see no reason to resign,” said Kolíkova in her Facebook post on Friday, May 7, in response to the motion submitted by the opposition Smer party to hold a no-confidence vote in her.
Kolíková opines that the attempt to dismiss her is related to the attempts to not make it possible to shorten custody to prevent evidence and witness collusion to the extent that would thwart the purpose of the criminal proceedings.
“The goal seems to be to try to influence the political environment through my ouster in order for such legislation to be approved,” she wrote, as cited by the TASR newswire.
Kolíková rejected allegations that one of the tools of the judicial map reform is for buying buildings and reducing the number of judges. In connection with the death of ex-police president Milan Lučanský, she stated that members of the Prison and Judicial Guards Corps hadn’t made a mistake.
She also does not consider the objections in connection with the business of her family company MK Real and with the business of her brother’s company Elektronika to be relevant.
“There has been no mistake for which I’d have to bear political responsibility,” she wrote.
OĽaNO criticises Kolíková for a conflict of interest in finding a building for the Justice Ministry.
“To accuse me of abusing my position in finding premises for the Justice Ministry is doubtful,” she said, as cited by the TASR newswire, adding that she had no influence on this process, as her predecessor decided on the new seat of the ministry.
Veronika Remišová, Deputy Prime Minister and head of the Za Ľudí party publicly supported Kolíková doing so on Friday. Remišová claims that it is crucial for her that Kolíková can devote herself fully to her work.
“It is important for us that the Justice Minister Mária Kolíková has the trust and support of coalition partners since without this, major reforms in the field of justice cannot be implemented,” Remišová wrote, adding that they were communicating intensively with other coalition partners on Friday to clarify any suspicions, even if they are unrelated to Minister Kolíková’s work in the current government.
Coalition parties SaS and Sme Rodina stand behind Kolíková too, and they would not support her ousting in parliament. Sme Rodina caucus head Peter Pčolinský told the media on Friday that the caucus has no problem with Kolíková. The minister and Sme Rodina MPs met on Thursday, May 6, to discuss the no-confidence motion in her. At the meeting, Kolíková answered all questions and cleared up all doubts, noted Pčolinský.
“At the moment, we don’t have any problems with the minister,” said Pčolinský. “The question is how other coalition partners will approach the problem because some new information regarding her was released today [on Friday].”
Opinions on whether Kolíková should be ousted, resign or remain in the post differ. OĽaNO MP Peter Pollák told the media that Kolíková should resign as she has failed to clear up all doubts concerning the reasons for which Smer wants her dismissed. Conversely, OĽaNO MP Ján Krošlák claimed that the minister enjoys his support.
“It’s sad that we’re dealing with motions from Smer, a party whose only aim is to topple the government and trigger a snap general election,” said Krošlák, as cited by TASR.
