Ruling Party Urges Slovak Premier to Fire His Ally Over Murders

Slovakia’s prime minister is defying opposition calls to ditch top law-enforcement officials and accused his rivals of using the recent murder of a journalist to boost their popularity.

Premier Robert Fico, whose 10 years in power brought the country into the euro zone and attracted investments from global carmakers, has faced public discontent over shortcomings in tackling corruption. The increasing pressure is a blow to a leader who has diverged from his peers in ex-communist eastern Europe by edging away from rising euroskeptic sentiment and trying to solidify Slovakia’s place at the core of the European Union.

Robert Fico
Photogrpaher: ILMARS ZNOTINS/AFP/Getty Images

He rejected demands to fire Interior Minister Robert Kalinak and police Chief Tibor Gaspar even after key party ally and Culture Minister Marek Madaric quit, saying he was “not able to bear” that reporter Jan Kuciak and his fiancee were shot dead in an execution-style attack. Two key aides also stepped aside. Officials have said the murders may be linked to Kuciak’s investigations into activities of organized crime gangs, including the Italian mafia.

“The pressure on Fico is very strong; we have never been so close to a change of government,” Grigorij Meseznikov, the director of the Bratislava-based Institute for Public Affairs, said by phone on Wednesday. “Kalinak’s dismissal could calm the situation to some extent, but the train has left the station.”

The second-largest opposition party, OLANO, organized a protest march late Wednesday, calling on Fico to fire Kalinak. More demonstrations are planned this week.

Political Favorite

The opposition’s focus on Kalinak is particularly significant as he is the prime minister’s political favorite and has served as interior minister in three cabinets that have run Slovakia since 2006 except for a two-year gap at the start of the decade.

Fico fought back, accusing his opponents of using the deaths of two young people as “a simple political tool for the opposition, with which it wants to push people into the streets and gain power.”

Coalition Questions

It wasn’t clear whether other members of the cabinet, now in the middle of its four-year term, will follow Madaric. President Andrej Kiska, who defeated Fico in 2014 to win election, is planning to take the unusual step of holding a televised address to the nation on Sunday. The leadership of the ethnic Hungarian ruling-coalition party, Most-Hid, is expected to meet on Thursday to decide how to address the political situation.

With media rights deteriorating in the EU’s post-communist members, the country’s first high-profile murder of a journalist has revived memories of media intimidation by organized crime bosses during the 1990s rule of authoritarian Premier Vladimir Meciar. Press freedom in Slovakia hasn’t declined as much as in its neighbors Hungary or Poland, but it has seen escalating tensions between the government and news outlets after a spate of reports on opaque procurement and tax-fraud cases by companies linked to politicians.

Kuciak’s unfinished story, which linked several businesses operating in Slovakia to the Italian mafia, detailed past business connections between the companies and two of Fico’s aides. The officials, Security Council Chief Viliam Jasan, and assistant Maria Troskova, a former Slovak contestant in the Miss Universe pageant, stepped down until the investigation is completed. They both rejected any connection with the murders.

Three Italian nationals have been detained in connection with investigation of the murder, newspaper Sme reported, without saying where it got the information. Police Chief Tibor Gaspar has scheduled a news conference for 2 p.m.

— With assistance by Peter Laca

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