Prosecutor General Maroš Žilinka. (source: TASR)
Prosecutor General Maroš Žilinka will not submit a proposal to dissolve the People’s Party Our Slovakia, an extremist political party better known as the ĽSNS, to the court because it is not a threat to democracy.
The prosecutor general is the only authority that can file such a proposal to the court.The prosecutor general is the only authority that can file such a proposal to the court.
“The political party has no real potential and opportunity to implement political changes that threaten democracy,” the Prosecutor General’s Office said in a statement.
The ĽSNS, which would not make it to the parliament today according to political preferences polls from the past year, holds several opposition chairs in the parliament. Its parliamentary caucus of 10 lawmakers has fallen apart after some of the lawmakers left the party.
First attempt failed in 2019
Moreover, the party’s leader Marian Kotleba lost his parliamentary chair earlier this year after the Supreme Court found him guilty of sympathising with extremism. Kotleba, a far-right politician and a former teacher, had given out cheques worth €1,488 – the figures represent a neo-Nazi symbol - to some families.
Several other party members and supporters, including former ĽSNS member Milan Mazurek, have also been convicted.
Despite a previous attempt to dissolve the party by Žilinka’s predecessor, Jaromír Čižnár, the ĽSNS party continues to exist. The lack of evidence was the key reason behind Čižnár’s failure in 2019.
The law on political parties stipulates that a political party can be dissolved only if it violates the constitution, laws and international agreements. For this reason, Kotleba’s first, ultra-nationalist party, Slovenská Pospolitosť, was dissolved by the Supreme Court in 2006 following a proposal filed by then prosecutor general Dobroslav Trnka.
However, when Čižnár turned to the Supreme Court three years ago, the court did not find any violations in the ĽSNS party’s manifesto and activities.
ĽSNS has changed
Following Kotleba’s conviction, Žilinka looked into the possibility of turning to the court with a proposal to dissolve the ĽSNS party. The published statement, however, suggests that the prosecutor general believes the party is too weak and small to shape politics in Slovakia.
The party has also changed and “it does not present an image of such a social model that would contradict the concept of a democratic society”.
The Prosecutor General’s Office did not publish its legal analysis.
The number of convictions of people linked to the party does not make any difference, according to the prosecutor general.
“Although these may cause understandable concerns, they do not reach the level of an immediate threat to democracy,” the Prosecutor General’s Office wrote in its statement.
If Žilinka files the proposal, it would be the newly established court, the Supreme Administration Court, that would decide on his proposal.
