Minister Drucker (source: SITA)
Interior Minister Tomáš Drucker (Smer nominee) has rejected allegations levelled by opposition OĽaNO leader Igor Matovič that his wife acquired lucrative land near Trnava significantly under price. Drucker claims that his wife’s business is built strictly on market principles and that her business cannot be linked with any of his public office posts in any way.
“Tomáš Drucker fundamentally rejects the fabricated stories and interpretations involving land purchase links and speculation on revenues from the purchase,” wrote Drucker’s ministry in a statement cited by the TASR newswire, adding that the minister is ready at any time to go through the deliveries provided by the Rempo company to the Slovak Post Office during the time when Drucker served as chairman of its board of directors.
Rempo has been supplying the Post Office as well as many other public-sector organisations and private companies with a wide range of goods for decades. Tomáš Drucker utterly rejects such spurious links between Rempo’s business, his person and his wife’s business, wrote the ministry.
The business of Drucker’s wife in the village of Špačince near Trnava was carried out for the purpose of residential construction for commercial purposes.
“The land in Špačince was acquired by the Logaro company at the end of 2016 for €8.94 per square metre,” said Drucker. “During 2017 preparatory work was carried out on these plots of land and during the process another development company expressed interest in buying it. The purchase price represented €37 per square metre at that time and the entire area, including the land owned by Logaro, was sold off at the end of 2017.”
Earlier on Monday, April 9, Matovič accused Drucker and his wife Lucia of obtaining plots of land in and around the city of Trnava for one tenth of their market value, saving up to €1.38 million, which “ended up in the couple’s wallet”. He called on Drucker to publish all the documents containing the information about how he acquired the land.
Matovič claims that Drucker’s wife managed to obtain land worth €1.5 million for only €120,000. He suspects that this was done as compensation for granting state commissions worth millions of euros to a company called Rempo during the time when Drucker headed the state-owned Slovak Post Office.
“[The company] used to gain tailor-made commissions, and it often competed with itself in tenders,” said Matovič, adding that Rempo has been the preferred supplier not only for the Post Office but also for then ministers Robert Kaliňák, Ján Počiatek and Martin Glváč (all Smer).
