Taraba: Opposition Exported Much More Timber in Previous Term

Bratislava, 7 August (TASR) - Much more timber was exported from Slovakia in the previous election term when the current opposition was in charge than is the case now, Environment Minister Tomas Taraba (a Slovak National Party/SNS nominee) stated on social media on Thursday in response to criticism from the opposition. According to him, "in 2021-2022, when Hlina's SaS and Budaj's people were in charge of forest management, four million cubic metres (m3) of wood were exported from Slovakia, with the main buyers being Romania, Poland, China, and Italy. Just so we don't forget who is making a song and dance here." [Alojz Hlina is an MP for the opposition party Freedom and Democracy (SaS) and Jan Budaj was the then environment minister for the opposition OLaNO party, later renamed as 'Slovakia' - ed. note] "The timber logging that these fraudsters are making a big deal of at press conferences amounted to some 3,000 m3, and the company was selling the timber itself because, for the sake of speed, the national park ordered a timber logging service only and not the sale of wood. Only 0.5 percent of logging is carried out in this way in national parks, and this was a one-off case," he said. Hlina stated earlier this week that national parks are slowly disappearing under Taraba's leadership. "The latest example is a tender at TANAP, the most beautiful and valuable national park, which was announced without being published in the official journal. Everything was set up to bypass regulations. The timber, which was supposed to stay near the forest, bypassed local processors because the winning bidder offered a lower price and thus won," said Hlina. Taraba said that, previously, contracts were only signed with five local sawmills, whereas today there are 24 contracts and six more have entered the contracting process. "There have never been so many local timber processors with contracts as under our leadership," emphasised Taraba, adding that next week he'll announce further "horrible information" that he's been receiving in connection with this "scandal". "I'll be pleased to make it public so that it will be clear where we are now and where we were back then. Just to see who is actually making a song and dance here," he added. jrg/df/ko