Fico: State Officials and NGOs Called Opposition Hybrid Threat in Brussels

Bratislava, May 31 (TASR) - A group of Slovak state bureaucrats and NGOs informed EU and NATO officials that the Slovak political opposition poses a hybrid threat and that if it wins the parliamentary election, Slovakia might leave NATO, so they asked the EU and NATO for an intervention, claimed Smer-SD chair Robert Fico at a press conference on Wednesday. According to Fico, this operation constituted a coordinated approach to discredit the opposition and interfere in the election campaign. Smer-SD is demanding the convening of supervisory House committees and an extraordinary parliamentary session. Fico alleged that a group made up of representatives of the Government Office, several ministries, the Slovak Information Service, the police, the National Security Authority and NGOs visited Brussels in April. He demanded to learn who organised this visit. According to Fico, the group asked "European structures" to intervene in Slovakia due to emerging political developments unfavourable to the "disintegrated governing coalition" and President Zuzana Caputova. The group allegedly said that NATO must "address the issue of the Slovak election or Fico and [Voice-SD chair Peter] Pellegrini will win and Slovakia leave NATO". Fico claimed that a police representative asked NATO to dispatch a "special team". Fico rejected claims that Slovakia will leave NATO if his party wins the election. "We respect and honour commitments that Slovakia has towards these organisations," he said, adding that no opposition party poses any threat to Slovak democracy. Smer-SD intends to ask the chairs of House supervisory committees to convene a joint session, summon all the Slovak participants in the visit and have them submit all documents and records of the trip. Fico also wants to reach out to Prosecutor-General Maros Zilinka and have him look into the matter in order to determine whether a crime was committed. Fico added that representatives of Voice-SD were invited to the briefing, but the lawmakers centered around Voice-SD chair Peter Pellegrini declined to attend. mf/df