Slovak News Back to the news
Vazny: Protesting Hauliers To Face Consequences
Saturday 09 January 2010 Zoom in | Print page
(Slovak Radio, January 9, 'Sobotne dialogy')
The hauliers protesting against the new road-toll system, who do not respect the Law on Strike and create problems in the traffic flow, have to bear the consequences for their actions, said Slovak Transport Minister Lubomir Vazny on the Slovak Radio politics discussion programme Sobotne Dialogy ('Saturday Dialogues').
"If the strike would be (organised) according to the rules of Law on Strike, I would respect this strike since I respect the Law. The strike hasn't been (carried out) in this manner (according to the law) so far, it's just some kind of protest of these hauliers and based on this protest they are blocking the road infrastructure. Their remaining on the road is creating problems in the traffic flow and consequences will be drawn," Vazny pointed out. According to him, this does not mean using force against the protesters, but imposing fines for blocking the traffic.
The Minister repeated his earlier claims that it is not the absolute majority of approximately 70,000 hauliers protesting against the road-toll system, but only those that have neglected their duties stemming from the law and were not prepared well for the launch of the system. "All hauliers respect the rules of the game, only several - 100, 200, maybe 1,000 don't respect it. Road-toll is an essential part of usage of the road infrastructure. Who doesn't want to use can chose a different route," he stated.
Vazny does not see room for lowering the road-toll rate, which is - according to him - lowest in comparison to all European countries, which have introduced the road-toll system, with the exemption of the Czech Republic. The rate is being determined by a formula agreed on on the European Union level, with a certain tolerated price margin. "The maximum amount, which Slovakia would be allowed to use is not used - the rate is about 30 percent lower," explained Vazny, adding that road-toll for the hauliers won't effect the common citizens as far as prices of goods and services are concerned.
Opposition SDKU-DS MP and former transport minister Pavol Prokopovic (2002-2006) does not agree with Vazny's claims. "You have never presented how (the toll rate) was calculated and what the price margin was. Citizens and hauliers may have doubts whether there wasn't a possibility to make (the toll rate) lower. Maybe the state's revenues would have been smaller, but the effect on people would be smaller too," said Prokopovic.
According to him, the current Transport Minister Vazny is speaking as a spokesman of the road-toll system provider (SkyToll), when he does not speak about the problems of the system at all, trying to defend those, who have caused these problems. Despite this, according to Prokopovic, his party won't initiate Vazny's dismissal. "There's no reason to dismiss him now, let him do three or four more such press conferences as he did (on Thursday) and he will be dismissed by his own people," concluded Prokopovic.
All rights reserved. Any publishing or further dissemination of press releases and photographs from TASR's resources without TASR's prior written approval constitutes a violation of the Copyrights Act.
