CULTURE Minister Marek Maďarič will not run for the post of Smer’s deputy chair at the congress held on June 28, the TASR newswire reported, referring to several sources from party’s leadership.
Maďarič left the post on June 16, following the presidential elections in which Prime Minister Robert Fico lost to Andrej Kiska. Maďarič was responsible for Fico’s campaign.
When speaking about the upcoming congress earlier in June, Maďarič said he was expecting excessive and deep changes to the party, both personnel and programme. When approached by TASR on June 25 he could not say whether he would seek re-election for the post. He conditioned his decision with personnel changes in party’s leadership.
The SITA newswire wrote that the leaders of Smer have not discussed such changes this week. Maďarič reportedly has not succeeded with his proposal to exchange Education Minister Dušan Čaplovič with Juraj Blanár, the Žilina Region governor, at the post of deputy chair.
It is also expected that MEP Vladimír Maňka will leave his post of the deputy chair, and will be substituted with State Secretary of the Finance Ministry Peter Pellegrini, as reported by SITA.
Though Čaplovič should stay at his deputy chair post, he should lose his ministerial chair. The new minister will reportedly become Pellegrini. Another cabinet member who will allegedly leave the function is Economy Minister Tomáš Malatinský, who should be exchanged by the current state secretary at the ministry, Pavol Pavlis. There will be also changes to seven state secretary posts, SITA reported.
Smer has reportedly discussed what Čaplovič will do after leaving the ministry. As he was elected as MP in 2012 general elections, he will probably take the parliamentary seat. According to SITA, there are two alternatives what he could do in the future: to become ambassador to Serbia, or to become deputy speaker of parliament, exchanging Jana Laššáková or Renáta Zmajkovičová.
Source: SITA
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
