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Fico: SDKU-DS Committed Political Suicide In Live Broadcast
Tuesday 26 January 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, January 26 (TASR) - Strongest opposition party SDKU-DS committed political suicide in a live broadcast and admitted to money laundering, reads Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico's statement presented by Brano Ondrus from Government Office press department on Tuesday afternoon.
Fico's reaction came in response to SDKU-DS head Mikulas Dzurinda, who announced at a press conference earlier on Tuesday that SDKU-DS is not able to answer all journalists' questions about the party's financing a decade ago. Dzurinda added that he's sorry about this, as he would like to furnish proof that the party has always been above board.
Ondrus said that Fico - who suggested on Friday that SDKU was engaged in some shady financial dealings in 2004 and 2005, using shell companies and foreign bank accounts - will make further comments concerning this issue on Wednesday.
Dzurinda said that his party has always acted in accordance with the law. He noted that in the times of the financial obligations emerged (in 2000), publishing sponsors and creditors was not mandatory yet. "It was us who passed laws which made party financing more transparent. In addition, we have a regulation in the SDKU-DS statutes concerning financing that is stricter than the actual law," he said, adding that he personally was never interested in party financing. "I'm responsible for the party, but I was never involved business-wise," he explained.
According to Dzurinda, as a person can mature so can a political party. "We've paid for our mistakes from the past in 2002 and in 2006. But since 2006, SDKU-DS's financing is meeting the strictest criteria, there is no patrons standing behind us," he said in summation. Dzurinda also claimed that "it is clear and undoubted that we have borrowed money and repaid it ... not impairing the state for a single heller".
Dzurinda considers Fico's accusation to be an "extraordinarily despicable construct", the main goal of which is to criminalise SDKU-DS and to divert the focus from Government's current scandals. Fico on Friday accused SDKU-DS of striking a shady deal with a company called Soul, which he labelled a "garage firm" [a reference to what the controversial company Interblue that has been involved in selling surplus C02 emission quotas – ed. note].
"In light of the connections between SDKU-DS and Soul ... in light of SDKU-DS nominees' bank accounts and companies operating in tax havens, using Swiss banks, it's possible to infer ... that illegal funds have been used in financing SDKU-DS party activities. There's also a suspicion that money laundering took place," said Fico on Friday.
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