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Fico's Constitutional Amendment Not Backed by Parliamentary Committee
Tuesday 23 February 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, February 23 (TASR) - Prime Minister Robert Fico failed to convince a sufficient number of MPs in the parliamentary committee for constitutional law on Tuesday to recommend the approval of his proposal for a constitutional amendment that is closely linked to his law on proving the origin of property.
As constitutional legislation is concerned, a so-called constitutional majority was required for the amendment to be recommended, or the support of at least eight of the ten MPs present at the committee session. Three MPs - Katarina Tothova (LS-HZDS), Jakub Gajdosik (Slovak National Party/SNS) and Lucia Zitnanska (SDKU-DS) - abstained from voting, however.
Fico defended both the law and the amendment by saying that the public backs measures that will allow the relevant authorities and institutions to intervene in cases in which somebody is strongly suspected of having gained part of their property illegally. According to Fico, the general public has been "traumatised" by such immoral cases for a long time, but these can't be dealt with legally at the moment. According to the proposed legislation, therefore, the state would be able to confiscate property if it were found to have been acquired illegally.
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