SNS Welcomes COVID-19 Amnesties, Opposition Finds Them Unfair

Bratislava, April 2 (TASR) - Coalition Slovak National Party (SNS) welcomes the so-called COVID-19 amnesties that Parliament is supposed to discuss at its current session, whereas opposition Progressive Slovakia and 'Slovakia' parties reject the motion. The bill aims to "redress the injustice" suffered by individuals who had to comply with pandemic measures. "This is an active issue for SNS, after all, it is due to our initiative and our Government Proxy's that the issue is being constantly opened. I take it as a political success for SNS that we'll have COVID amnesties," declared House Vice-chair and SNS leader Andrej Danko. In his view, it's necessary to compensate people whose lives were impacted by fines, imposed for their failure to comply with pandemic measures. Opposition's PS objects to this, perceiving the amnesty as deleterious and the governing coalition as hypocritical. "On one hand, they're going to grant amnesty to the violators of the pandemic measures, but on the other one they're asking people to comply with current measures against the foot-and-mouth disease," stated MP Oskar Dvorak (PS). The party wants the coalition to withdraw the bill from Parliament altogether. "If they won't do so, they could at least accept our amending proposal, which will keep compensations for the people held in state quarantine, but scrap COVID amnesties for those who were violating anti-pandemic measures," added Dvorak. MP and 'Slovakia' leader Igor Matovic rejects the bill outright. "When the scum here, who were goading the people against the measures now try to act as if some great injustice was done to the same people whom they were goading to disregard the measures in the first place and got them fined, that's simply not fair," said Matovic, who took potshots at Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) for encouraging people to disregard the COVID-19 measures back when Fico had been an opposition leader. mf