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Fico: Restituents Want Land, Not Financial Compensation
Wednesday 02 December 2009 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, December 2 (TASR) - A proposal to give only financial compensation to land restituents in order to prevent shady transactions has met with great disapproval from the restitutents, said Premier Robert Fico at the Government session on Wednesday.
Fico said that he would vote in favour of such a proposal without hesitation, however. "This should have been introduced a long time ago," he added.
Independent MP Zsolt Simon plans to submit amendments to three Restitution Acts at the upcoming parliamentary session in an attempt to resolve the situation. Fico responded by asking why Simon didn't come up with such an amendment when he was agriculture minister, as land allocations more lucrative than plots originally lost are a long-term phenomenon.
Asked whether a land Mafia was involved in the case of the scandal concerning land allocations in Velka Lomnica and Stara Lesna (both Presov region), Fico responded that many people were involved - from 11 Slovak Land Fund (SPF) Council members to the general director and his deputy. "I don't believe that they struck a deal, but think it's more of a case of negligence and a gross violation of political instructions," he said.
The premier also sent a request to the Prosecutor-General's Office to investigate the land transfer in question. According to him, the Office needs to consider whether it can take court action based on the public interest.
The Government on Wednesday dismissed SPF general director Miroslav Mihalik (a Smer-SD nominee) and his deputy Adrian Sandorcin (LS-HZDS). On the same day, Fico submitted a proposal to dismiss the six SPF members who were appointed by the Government. Fico stressed that after personnel changes in SPF are carried out, the Government will insist that land is granted to restituents only in areas where the original property was lost.
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