President Andrej Kiska (source: SME)
The parliamentary committee for conflict of interests stopped the proceedings held against President Andrej Kiska who had to explain his trip to Poland.
The MPs for the ruling parties, Smer and the Slovak National Party (SNS) claimed that Kiska took his daughter Natália and several other private individuals to Poland with the government’s special plane. He allegedly also attended the ceremony accompanying the start of the construction of a new skyscraper that is part of the project of developer HB Reavis, the firm for which his daughter works, the TASR newswire reported.
“The allegations that were the subject of the motion were not proved, so the proceeding became groundless,” said chair of the committee Martin Poliačik of the opposition party Freedom and Solidarity (SaS), as quoted by TASR.
The submitters considered it “unacceptable” for the president to travel to private events using government transport and also that it was also used by private persons, including the president’s daughter. They claimed that Kiska’s actions were a conflict of interests and that he abused state money for private and family purposes.
The president, however, had explained his daughter was not travelling on the plane, which was later also confirmed by the Interior Ministry.
“The ministry sent us the list of passengers and President Kiska’s daughter was not on it,” Poliačik said, as quoted by TASR.
As for the private event, Kiska said that similar events are part of the foreign visits’ programme and at the same time referred to economic diplomacy.
He perceived the motion as part of a continued campaign against him, which was later objected to by Smer MP Pavol Goga, TASR reported.
