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Matovic: We Were Offered Millions of Euros to Let Coalition Down
Thursday 24 June 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, June 24 (TASR) - Future MP of Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) Igor Matovic told the internet news-server aktualne.sk on Thursday that he was offered "a huge amount of money" to destabilise the emerging new coalition in order to trigger an early parliamentary election.
In order to pass the new government's Manifesto, at least 76 parliamentary votes are needed. Matovic was allegedly asked to vote against the document in question along with three other MPs from the 'Ordinary People' faction (within SaS), without the votes of which the coalition would only have 75 out of 150 votes.
Matovic said that he had received the offer on Wednesday, June 23. "I was told that this is an offer coming from business circles. Assuming the amount someone is willing to pay us, they must be in want of getting back to power really bad," he said, alluding that the offer may have come from people affiliated with Smer-SD.
He refused to specify the exact sum, saying that it was somewhere between €3.3-33.3 million. The money were offered to the entire MP quartet that managed to get into the Parliament from the very bottom of the SaS slate, thanks to preferential ballots. The 37-year-old businessman said that he was immune against temptation.
According to SaS chairman Richard Sulik, Matovic did good when he published the offer.
Sulik confirmed that Matovic told him about the offer, also disclosing who made it, and said that they won't accept it. Sulik claims that the offer "went through more people", with the original source being still unknown. However, Sulik refused to speculate on this any further. When asked whether it could have been Smer-SD party that made the offer, the SaS chairman replied: "No, I wouldn't say so."
Matovic won't press charges, as he has no written proof, said Sulik. "I think that going public with the offer should be enough; and hopefully, it will contribute to improving political culture," said Sulik.
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