Speaker of parliament Pavol Paška will summon a special parliamentary session to discuss President Ivan Gašparovič’s refusal to appoint general-prosecutor-elect Jozef Čentéš. It will take place on Wednesday, January 16 at 11 am, the TASR newswire reported.
The special session was initiated by opposition parties Christian Democratic Movement (KDH), Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ), Most-Híd, and Freedom and Solidarity (SaS). The parties stated that they would like for Gašparovič to explain his reasons for refusing to appoint Čentéš to the top prosecutor’s post.
Moreover, the four parties plan to take the issue to the Constitutional Court, and impeach the president over the alleged intentional violation of the Slovak constitution.
The governing Smer party has said on numerous occasions that it will have no part in the matter. Smer chief and Prime Minister Robert Fico has indicated that Smer will not take part in what he labelled as “opposition circuses”, TASR wrote.
Meanwhile, spokesperson for the president Marek Trubač informed that Gašparovič will not appear at the special parliamentary session. Yet, the president will probably attend one of the ordinary sessions, TASR reported on January 11
At the beginning of January, Gašparovič cited doubts stemming from the manner in which Čentéš was elected, also pointing to the fact that Čentéš shredded testimony about corruption of MP Igor Matovič, current head of Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OĽaNO), as his reasons for the rejection. In 2011, Matovič provided a statement on corruption among political parties to the Office of the General Prosecutor, but the questioning had to be repeated as the original statement was shredded by Čentéš, in his role as a prosecutor. Both Čentéš and Matovič claimed that the testimony was shredded by mistake, TASR reported.
Source: TASR
For more information about this story please see: President criticised for rejecting Čentéš
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
