Fico: No Compensation to Be Paid to Families After Deadly Fires

Bratislava, 4 December (TASR) – Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) will not propose that the government grant compensation to the bereaved families following the tragic fires in Maslickovo and Kozarovce. The Prime Minister stated this during Thursday's Question Time in Parliament. He explained that in the Maslickovo tragedy, the mother had left her two children in a shack where they burned to death. He does not believe this provides grounds for financial compensation. According to him, it is appropriate that criminal proceedings have been launched in the case. "Do you really want us to compensate a mother who fled the shack and left two small children inside? That is what happened. So I hope you accept my answer that there will be no compensation," he replied to a question from MP Zuzana Stevulova (Progressive Slovakia). Fico noted that hysteria often arises in such crisis situations. "Regardless of the mother's motive, whether it was typical hysteria, or emotion, fear, whatever it was, I think it is right that criminal proceedings have begun; it concerns manslaughter. It will be assessed to what extent the mother is or is not responsible for what happened in this part of Lunik IX. So my answer is no," Fico said when asked whether he would propose compensation for the families. The Prime Minister added that Government Proxy for Roma Communities Alexander Dasko should soon address issues such as fire safety. Stevulova responded that Fico's answer was "cynicism of the highest order". She criticised him for blaming a mother who was burning alive and suffered burns, and whom he effectively told she did not deserve compensation. "When a mother of small children is forced in the morning to light a stove in a shack using wood or petrol, whether out of ignorance or anything else, it is in fact a situation into which this family has been pushed because our society allows these people to live in generational poverty and has been unable to help them for decades," she stressed. She argued that a "big gesture with meaning for the whole society", showing that we also recognise the suffering of these people, would be necessary. A fire broke out on 10 November in one of the simple structures in the Maslickovo area of the Kosice borough of Lunik IX, killing two small children. The blaze spread to several other dwellings. In a house fire in the village of Kozarovce in the Levice district, three children and one woman lost their lives. The fire broke out in the night of Tuesday (25 November) in the Domky area. mf