President Addressing His Housing in Cooperation with Interior Ministry Office

Bratislava, 25 July (TASR) - President Peter Pellegrini is addressing the issue of his housing in cooperation with the Interior Ministry's Office for Protection of Constitutional Officials and Diplomatic Missions, the President Office's communications department has told TASR, adding that the condition of the presidential villa in the Slavin area in Bratislava is unsuitable. Pellegrini isn't planning to move into the villa at Slavin at the moment. "Its condition is absolutely unsuitable and the President's Office has no money to repair it," said the communications department. The residence at Slavin has stood empty for a long time and is falling into disrepair. The former headquarters of the supervisory board of the Eastern Slovak Steelworks (VSZ) with a large plot of land was purchased by the President's Office in 2001 for 36 million crowns. It served the state for only 3.5 years, during president Rudolf Schuster's term in office. The issue of using the villa was raised again during Andrej Kiska's term. According to the Interior Ministry, the villa is currently unusable from the security and technical viewpoints. The president, House chair and premier became entitled to state-provided housing after the adoption of the Lex Assassination Attempt in connection with the assassination attempt on Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) in May of last year. The Interior Ministry is in charge of seeking real estate for housing the top constitutional officials. ko/df