Opposition Parties to Convene Special House Session over Hacienda Scandal

Bratislava, 30 May (TASR) - The opposition sees the only option to address the case of private haciendas financed through the Agricultural Payment Agency (PPA) in convening a special House session, representatives of Freedom and Solidarity (SaS), Progressive Slovakia (PS) and Christian Democrats (KDH) concurred at a news conference on Friday, stressing the need to talk about the issue and draw conclusions. "Nothing has happened to date. We are witnessing how the opposition is striving to point to the issue in Parliament, convene a special session of a parliamentary committee, ask for an inspection at PPA, but the coalition simply doesn't react, or even blocks such efforts. Colleagues from the committee also tried to initiate an MPs' survey at PPA several times. They weren't allowed to do so, so the only option we can see is to convene a special House session, as this is a huge scandal," stated Martina Bajo Holeckova (SaS). MP Jan Hargas (PS) stressed that this is a huge injustice. He pointed to the poor condition of infrastructure in Slovakia, for which there's no money for improvements, while money has been found for haciendas and private villas. "Not only voters of the opposition but also voters of the coalition finally deserve to know the answers to questions regarding how this is possible, how this could have happened at all. Who is responsible for this?, how will it be resolved? That's what this session should be about," he said. MP Branislav Skripek (KDH) said that his party will, naturally, supply signatures for convening the session. "As it's outrageous to watch a few people among us enriching themselves," stated Skripek. ko/df