Opposition: Fico's Attacks Against Judges Unacceptable in Democracy

Bratislava, April 8 (TASR) - In a democratic country, it's beyond the pale to have the Prime Minister call for disciplinary measures against representatives of the independent judiciary, opposition's Progressive Slovakia (PS) head Michal Simecka stated on Monday. "I urge Robert Fico to come to his senses and stop throwing punches all around him like a berserker," said Simecka. Earlier in the day, Premier Robert Fico (Smer-SD) had demanded disciplinary proceedings against Supreme Court judges Juraj Kliment and Peter Stift. In Fico's view, a proposal should be filed with the Supreme Administrative Court, and "as part of the disciplinary proceedings, the Supreme Administrative Court should take a decision and debench this "cream" of the Slovak judiciary, Stift and Kliment," said Fico. In response, opposition KDH vice-chair Viliam Karas pointed out that the Justice Minister is also invested with powers to initiate disciplinary motions. "If the Prime Minister feels the need to lodge disciplinary motions, it can be done also by the Justice Minister, who's subordinated to him, and so there's no need to attack judges," he said. The opposition SaS party added that in such cases, the Justice Minister has a standard tool at his disposal that is the Supreme Administrative Court, yet Fico is once again attacking the judicial power in an unacceptable manner. "This must be condemned because they're once again going against democracy, the rule of law and the independence of the judicial power. That's what we have the Supreme Administrative Court for - to hand down a verdict when a judge engages in wrongdoing," claimed SaS MP Maria Kolikova. mf/mcs