Premier Pleased That President's Veto on Amendment to UOO Law Was Overridden

Bratislava, 12 December (TASR) - Premier Robert Fico (Smer-SD) welcomes the overturning of President Peter Pellegrini's veto on the bill transforming the Whistleblowers Protection Office (UOO) into a new institution in Parliament, emphasising that Smer-SD will always respect the president but won't support Pellegrini in a future presidential election, TASR has learnt from the prime minister's post on a social network on Friday. "I'd like to thank the governing coalition for today's reapproval [following] the president's veto of the law on the Crime Victims and Whistleblowers Protection Office. Peter Pellegrini doesn't know what it's like to send people to prison without evidence or what it feels like to get a nine-millimetre bullet in the stomach. In my eyes, the president has failed, not because of the law, but because he sided with the people who locked us up and shot at us," wrote the premier. Fico declared that he respects the president's right to veto any law in the House and that Smer will always respect the head of state. "He'll be our president, but he won't have our support in the next presidential election," he added. MPs overrode President Peter Pellegrini's veto and reapproved a law transforming UOO into a new authority on Friday. A new Crime Victims and Whistleblowers Protection Office will thus be set up in Slovakia, replacing the current UOO. In addition to handling whistleblower cases, it will also take over the agenda of compensating victims of crime from the Justice Ministry. Pellegrini has said that he won't sign the law on transforming UOO into a new authority even after his veto was overridden, insisting on his reasons. He pointed to the absence of grounds for fast-tracked legislative proceedings, serious substantive objections regarding the inadequate protection of crime victims, and unresolved reservations on the part of the European Commission with possible consequences for Slovakia. am/df