Kolikova: Secret Report Read by Fico in House Absurd

Bratislava, January 21 (TASR) - A confidential report by the Slovak Intelligence Service (SIS), read out loud in Parliament by Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) on Tuesday was absurd and the opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party believes it didn't contain anything to warrant having a closed-door House session with public barred, SaS MP Maria Kolikova (SaS) declared at a press conference on the same day. "What served as a pretext to exclude public from the session was typical claptrap of Robert Fico that you can regularly experience in his videos, the weaving of some conspiracy theories of who's connected to whom and what kind of protests are being hatched against the Government. Save for a single exception, all these information are publicly available," stated MP Ondrej Dostal (SaS). There was no reason to have any part of or even the entire House session on the ouster of the Government behind closed door, as the casting of no-confidence motion in the Government is part of the parliamentary checks and balances and as such must be public. "This never ever happened in Slovakia before and I'm convinced that it has never happened in any democratic country, either," noted Dostal. The special emergency House session on the no-confidence motion in the Government was held in a confidential mode because the Prime Minister submitted a report by the secret service containing confidential information. The SIS subsequently announced that it has acquired "serious information about longstanding organised influence operation, aimed to destabilize the Slovak Republic" and granted permission to apprise lawmakers with the report. mf