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Madaric: Entire Political Spectrum Has Failed In Slovak Land Fund Scandal
Sunday 06 December 2009 Zoom in | Print page
(TV Markiza, December 6, 'Na Telo')
If anyone has failed vis-a-vis the recent scandal regarding the Slovak Land Fund (SPF), it has been the entire political spectrum, as the Opposition and Coalition alike had people on the SPF Council, governing Smer-SD party vice-chairman and Culture Minister Marek Madaric said on TV Markiza's politics show 'Na Telo' on Sunday.
Madaric was reacting to a statement by SDKU-DS chairman Mikulas Dzurinda, who said on the show that Premier Robert Fico knew about the scandalous land transfer by SPF in the High Tatra mountains. "I hope you don't think that if we had that information we wouldn't act on it?" Madaric asked the SDKU chairman, adding that similar land transfers happened under the previous government.
According to Dzurinda, it is shady business deals between politicians and sponsors of the governing parties that are holding the Government together. Dzurinda rejected Madaric's accusations regarding land transfers and said he didn't believe that these things took place under his government, although he was never a part of SPF or the agriculture ministry for that matter.
Madaric said that Smer tops the opinion polls because people acknowledge the results of its work, because the party has handled the financial and gas crises, saved 140,000 jobs and secured foreign investments. Dzurinda countered by saying that Slovakia has an army of unemployed and "brutal mass lay-offs" have taken place. He also mentioned a public procurement after which a Czech company supplied 140 ambulances even though a Slovak company based in Tvrdosin (Zilina region) could have manufactured them at lower cost.
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