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Fico: I'm Going to Switzerland to Gain Info on Swiss Bank Account Holders
Sunday 07 February 2010 Zoom in | Print page
(STV, February 7, 'O pat minut dvanast')
Premier and leader of the strongest ruling party Smer-SD Robert Fico told Slovak Television's (STV) politics show "O pat minut dvanast" (Five Minutes to Twelve) on Sunday that he's preparing for a working trip to Switzerland to set up some kind of information swap with a view to gaining more details about the Slovak holders of Swiss bank accounts.
Otherwise "we'll remain haunted by accounts of a different type", said Fico, noting that German Chancellor Angela Merkel is trying to get hold of a CD containing the names of some of her country's richest people.
"There is information that the disk includes Slovaks with massive accounts in Swiss banks" said Fico.
Having published information incriminating the opposition SDKU-DS party vis-a-vis dubious self-funding practices, a move that led to party chairman Mikulas Dzurinda giving up the top spot on the SDKU candidate list for the June 12 election, Fico said that he can't accept "a political party laundering money via tax havens and then using it in a political race.
"I refuse to stand on the same starting line with political parties who put dirty money into a political system," he said.
Co-appearing on the show as the first-ever politician to face Fico as premier, opposition Christian Democrat (KDH) leader Jan Figel confirmed that he stands by the conditions stated for continued co-operation with SDKU.
Figel urged Fico to report his information to the authorities and stop making a media saga out of the SDKU scandal.
Fico played down the fact that Dzurinda had stood down as election leader, saying that he's interested in the identity of the holder of a Swiss account who provided a loan to Soul, a firm allegedly close to SDKU.
Responding to the premier's claims that his administration has limited the room for corruption by not privatising state firms, Figel said that public procurements have created the same room as privatisations, as has been shown by many scandals involving Smer's partners.
Both politicias were non-committal as to possible post-election co-operation. Figel said that his party programme overlaps with much of SDKU's, while Fico said that the voters will decide this matter.
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