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MPs See SNS Legislative Bills as Pre-Election Gimmick
Thursday 14 January 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, January 14 (TASR) - The new legislative proposals to reinstitute the death penalty and bolster the protection of the republic in Slovakia has been roundly criticised as a pre-election gimmick by Coalition and Opposition MPs shortly after the Slovak National Party (SNS) presentation earlier on Thursday.
Representatives from SNS's coalition partners Smer-SD and LS-HZDS cast doubt on the wisdom of the bills and their chances of becoming law.
The bill to strengthen the protection of the republic requires amending the Criminal Code and is unnecessary as Slovakia's legal system carries many substitute provisions, says Jana Lassakova of Smer-SD. "We are in the European Union and NATO, our borders having been defined," she added.
Turning to death penalty, she said it had been abolished in all European countries and that Smer-SD rules it out completely.
According to Jozef Halecky of LS-HZDS, the bill to strengthen protection of republic has been submitted too late, as there are only five months remaining before this year's election. As for the capital punishment bill, the rest of the world is moving in the opposite direction.
Julius Brocka of the opposition Christian Democrats (KDH) says the SNS bills are proof that ruling coalition has kicked off the election campaign. "This is about mobilising voters ... neither bill addresses the difficulties of families with children who don't know how to survive today, but it may mobilise some of potential SNS voters."
SDKU-DS caucus chief Stanislav Janis thinks that with the bills SNS intends to cover up its skulduggery in its ministries (education, construction and regional development and, until last year, environment). "Slovakia needs to keep an eye on its state budget so as to prevent it being plundered. The country is in danger on the inside rather than on the outside."
SMK MP Jozsef Berenyi says that if Slota is so concerned about the territorial integrity of Slovakia why did he agree to cutting the budgets of the ministries of defence, foreign affairs and the interior? This is a phony pre-election ploy, he said. As for the capital punishment, Berenyi says that Slovakia has to have a ban on capital punishment as a condition for membership in the organisations such as Council of Europe, which includes each European country – except Belarus, which does have the death penalty.
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