Sulik: Matovic a Liar, I Won't Comment on his Desperate Bid for Attention

Bratislava, September 24 (TASR) - Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) chair Richard Sulik refused to comment on his alleged chats with Penta group financier Jaroslav Hascak, released by OLANO leader Igor Matovic, and pointed out that SaS has no corruption scandals. Sulik said on Sunday that he had perceived the 2020 proposal to provide state-owned VsZP health insurer with additional €300 million as an extremely bad solution, which was why in the autumn 2020 Sulik promoted as a government member a plan to increase payments on behalf of state policyholders and distribute the money among all three health insurers in Slovakia instead. The private chats between Sulik and Hascak were made public by Matovic earlier on Sunday, with Matovic claiming that they serve as evidence that SaS had served "the mafia". According to Matovic, Hascak allegedly instructed Sulik on what arguments to use against the bill. In response, Sulik claimed that he had disagreed with the unexpected proposal to funnel money into VsZP. "The dispute revolved about not funnelling additional €300 million into a black hole that was VsZP, but rather increase payments on behalf of state policyholders instead. Even so, this would have made VsZP benefit again, as it has 3.5 million out of 5.5 million policyholders," said the SaS chair, adding that he killed the proposal at a session of the Government. At the end of the day, the government approved €198 million for VsZP and additional €160 million a year and half later. Sulik claimed that he won't comment on alleged conversations acquired from his mobile phone. "I won't comment on any purported content that I know nothing about," he emphasized and called Matovic a vindictive and treacherous liar and manipulator, who's desperate to get attention. mf