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Slota: Fico Isn't God, Stefanov Should Stay in His Post
Wednesday 10 March 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, March 10 (TASR) - It wouldn't make any sense for the Slovak National Party (SNS) to leave the Government following Premier Robert Fico's call for the resignation of its nominee in the post of Construction and Regional Development Minister Igor Stefanov, SNS head Jan Slota said at a press conference on Wednesday.
"Are we camel drivers? [sic] Are we supposed to allow ourselves to be driven out of the Government by somebody? We've worked here for years and the premier is no god there," said Slota in reaction to Fico's call for Stefanov to resign over the so-called notice-board tender.
Slota stressed that SNS has achieved really good results at the Construction Ministry, but three months ahead of the general election "somebody (else) would come and present himself with our work".
Anyway, it's now Fico's turn to move and SNS may have to accept that Education Minister Jan Mikolaj (SNS) will be appointed as interim construction minister, as the party doesn't want anybody from Smer to seize the ministry, said Slota.
At the same time, the SNS leader pointed out that Fico's Smer party has also been involved in several scandals that died down after several days. "But the notice-board tender has been a never-ending story for two years, although the total loss has been €32,000," he stressed.
Slota also defended his decision vis-a-vis Stefanov by saying that even a parent doesn't punish its child twice for the same mistake. Slota was referring to the dismissal of Stefanov's predecessor Marian Janusek last year.
The SNS chairman further claimed that the party was ready to return the €32,000 that has gone astray in the tender. "The premier wants to behead an SNS minister nonetheless. SNS now looks like a tear-off calendar, and it can be said that somebody is attempting to direct attention at SNS at any price, rather than at those who make errors and steal," said Slota, adding that he believes President Ivan Gasparovic won't dismiss Stefanov. "The president isn't subordinate to anybody, he has an autonomous position," he said.
The Supreme Audit Office (NKU) said on Monday that failures were made and the law was broken in the aforementioned tender. In its report, NKU questioned the use of almost €4 million. Before this announcement, Stefanov claimed that NKU had found that out of the total amount of €13 million, only around €32,000 (0.2 percent) wasn't paid out in line with the stipulated purpose.
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