Simecka: Gaspar's Nomination Signal That SIS Is Becoming Instrument of Revenge

Bratislava, February 14 (TASR) - Pavol Gaspar's nomination as director of the Slovak Intelligence Service (SIS) is a signal that the service is coming to an end as an institution that is supposed to protect Slovakia's security interests and to work for the benefit of the people, and is becoming an instrument of revenge of Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) instead, said Progressive Slovakia (PS) chairman Michal Simecka on Wednesday. Simecka added that this is a nomination akin to Ivan Lexa's from the times of Vladimir Meciar's government in the 1990s. "The government has appointed a person there who has ties to the Nitra oligarchs and the entire clan around Smer. He is clearly motivated by revenge, he said it himself at that famous [hunting] cabin that he's 110-percent set on revenge. At the same time, he's a person who has no professional competence to head an intelligence service, no experience with intelligence activities," said Simecka, pointing out that Gaspar was accused of a crime. SIS under the possible leadership of Gaspar will lose credibility in the eyes of the people and foreign partners and will be isolated. This, according to the PS head, will harm Slovakia's security interests. Simecka thinks that this shows what Fico is all about. "He isn't concerned with people, with the country, he's only concerned with personal revenge, and with this nomination he has only confirmed it again," he stressed. am/df