Slovakia’s interior minister dismissed over spat with police leadership

Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová withdrew the mandate of now-former Interior Minister Ivan Šimko following his two-week-long dispute with police leadership.

The dispute began with the minister criticising police work in some open criminal cases. Later, in a series of social media posts, he hinted at police needing to operate under political control – comments viewed as him intending to “politicise” police work, which is quite a contentious issue in Slovakia.

“The main problem is that the trust between Mr Šimko and a wide leadership of the police has been damaged to such a way that it was not possible to renew it”, said acting Prime Minister Ľudovít Odór.

Čaputová nominated Odór´s government in mid-May after the resignation of the embattled minority government of Eduard Heger.

The main assignment for Odór and his team was to calm the political situation and prepare the country for early elections in late September.

The current cabinet comprises experts and technocrats; in fact, Šimko, a member of the Christian Democrats, was the only minister with a political past, serving as interior minister between 2001 and 2002 and as defence minister from 2002 to 2003.

Šimko´s dismissal was even demanded by the police as 20 high-ranking police officers, including the president of the police, threatened to step down should he stay in office.

However, because the interior minister also has the task of preparing early elections, opposition parties – the far-right and the social democratic Smer-SSD, which is increasingly cooperating with the far-right – claim the snap elections set for the end of September could be manipulated.

For now, the Interior Ministry will be led by the prime minister as constitutional rules do not allow for the nomination of a new minister who has not been approved by parliament.

(Radovan Geist, EURACTIV.sk)