After Interior Minister Ivan Šimko posted critical Facebook status criticising the police for not taking a gender-based violence case seriously, Police Chief Štefan Havran announced he is considering resigning from his post, adding that any political control of the police crosses a red line and is unacceptable.
Last week, Slovakia’s technocratic Interior Minister Ivan Šimko posted a Facebook status questioning the popular sentiment that police have had their hands untied since the reign of Smer ended in 2020, and while this typically means police are free to investigate corruption cases without political hindrance, Šimko spoke of it in connection to a recent gender-based violence case, in which a woman was murdered by her stalker.
Šimko said it saddens him to hear of police not taking the danger seriously, being afraid or reluctant to act and not admitting to “obvious failings”.
“People with guns and handcuffs must not have untied hands! They belong under the control of politics,” Šimko wrote on the social media network.
Police chief Štefan Havran along with broader police leadership said they were considering resigning following the incident and Havran called political control of police a “red line” and “unacceptable”.
Havran and Šimko held closed-door meetings. Technocratic PM Ľudovít Ódor plans to announce the outcome in the following days.
Ódor called his minister’s choice of words “unfortunate”, but said he is unable to dismiss him, as members of the OĽaNO party called for, as only the president has the power in the current caretaker government. President Zuzana Čaputová said she will meet with the minister this week and make a decision, saying she is “not happy” about the situation.
“There are some legal mechanisms to enforce lawfulness in police actions, their appropriateness, in an ethical dimension, but certainly not that we would want to influence investigations in any way,” PM Ódor said.
Šimko defended his social media status as a “private literary activity” and said he does not think the police chief will end up resigning.
(Barbara Zmušková | EURACTIV.sk)
Read more with EURACTIV
EU House stresses ‘side-effects’ of Romania, Bulgaria Schengen blockadeA non-binding European Parliament resolution adopted on Wednesday calls for Bulgaria and Romania to join the border-free Schengen area by the end of the year, stressing severe side-effects for the two countries’ citizens.
Source: euractiv.com
