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Opposition Will Try to Deprive Kalinak of His Ministry within Seven Days
Friday 22 January 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, January 22 (TASR) - Interior Minister Robert Kalinak (Smer-SD) will face a no-confidence vote in Parliament within the next seven days, as opposition MPs Daniel Lipsic (Christian Democrat/KDH), Martin Fedor (SDKU-DS) and Gyula Bardos (ethnic-Hungarian SMK) on Friday submitted a proposal aimed at Kalinak's ousting signed by 30 MPs.
The Opposition claims they have decided to initiate the dismissal attempt in response to the scandalous incident on January 2, in which an airport security exercise went awry and resulted and a sample of explosives was sent to Dublin in the luggage of an unwitting Slovak traveller.
Opposition MPs first called on Kalinak to resign on his own, but their words went unheeded, as Kalinak described the case as a fatal mistake of one individual police officer, not as a systematic failure.
"I view it as unacceptable that any unwitting Slovak citizen may become the subject of such an attempt from the side of the police ... an attempt that threatens his or her safety," said Lipsic, adding that the incident does prove systematic failures, as well as failures of the minister. "He first wanted to hush up the case, then he was hiding from the media. When admitting the scandal at last, he tried to pin the blame on the others - the dog-handler, Irish police, pilot, the rucksack (used during the police exercise)," argued Lipsic. He conceded, however, that he doesn't cherish illusions about the chances to dismiss Kalinak.
Fedor pointed out that Slovakia hasn't faced such a international shame for the past 14 years. "This itself is reason enough for the minister to resign," he claims.
Bardos has also said that Kalinak should have resigned on his own.
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