President Ivan Gašparovič received a letter of resignation from Agriculture Minister Stanislav Becík (from HZDS party) on Wednesday, September 9, the TASR newswire was told by the president's spokesman, Marek Trubač. The spokesman added that president's office will decide on the minister’s replacement within the next few days.
Becík announced his decision to resign after talks with HZDS chairman Vladimír Mečiar last week. He said that he didn't ask Mečiar about the reasons for his replacement. "Why ask for reasons once we've agreed on something and the agreement is valid?" he said.
According to media reports, Mečiar decided to oust Becík because he appointed new managers at the state forestry company, Lesy SR, with people close to the Smer party rather than those with links to HZDS.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico on the same day received a proposal from the HZDS chairman for replacement of Minister Becik by Vladimír Chovan – the current head of the Slovak Agriculture and Food Chamber. TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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