SaS: Secret Service Misused to Political Ends, Gaspar Must Be Ousted (2)

Bratislava, January 23 (TASR) - The Slovak Intelligence Service (SIS) has been misused for political purposes, which is why its director Pavol Gaspar needs to be ousted, declared at a press conference on Thursday opposition lawmakers of SaS, who will submit a motion to that effect to Parliament. The SaS responded this way to a special emergency session of the Slovak Security Council on a confidential report by SIS, which warns of an alleged destabilisation of Slovakia. SaS underlined that it plans to defeat Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) in democratic election, the results of which they will respect. "What we heard at press conferences of this governing coalition representatives today is not any different essentially from what we heard in Parliament too. It is the same information that is unfounded and, from my point of view, fabricated. What we've heard were threats, pressure and the intimidation of public, so as to make it too afraid to take part in public protests, due to be organised across the entire Slovakia," said MP Juraj Krupa (SaS). Krupa added that agent provocateurs can be deployed by state security forces to stage incidents at protests. He underlined that the government representatives are threatening the opposition and falsely accusing it of disrespecting the results of the 2023 parliamentary election when it organises legitimate public protests. He added that several House committees will be convened on the issue, in particular on Friday (January 24) the House Committee for Supervision of Military Intelligence, next week the Special House Committee for the Supervision of the SIS and the Committee for Defence and Security. MP Maria Kolikova (SaS) believes that the government is taking steps that erode parliamentary democracy. "After all, this government dismissed the opposition leader from the post of House vice-chair based on lies and hoaxes, that's simply how it is. Simply put, the opposition leader should certainly hold the post of one of Parliament's vice-chairs," said Kolikova, adding that the opposition leader should have also been present at a session of the Security Council too. mf/mcs