Danko: President Has Lost SNS's Trust; We'll Never Back Him for Any Post Again

Bratislava, 12 December (TASR) - President Peter Pellegrini has lost the confidence of the coalition Slovak National Party (SNS), and the party will never support him for any post again, SNS leader Andrej Danko has said in a video posted on social media. Danko once again criticised Pellegrini, particularly in connection with his veto of the bill to transform the Whistleblowers Protection Office (UOO) into a new authority. "First, you betrayed Robert Fico in 2020. I won't even mention how you became prime minister in 2018. You founded a party, demanded ministries in which you have a long reach when forming a government ... and at the end of the day, you just veto a law that we had a hard time passing in Parliament," Danko told Pellegrini, adding that he's "thrown Voice-SD overboard". The SNS chair also claims that the president knew what tension another vote on this law would cause. According to him, the head of state is therefore responsible for the altercations that took place between MPs on Thursday (11 December). "You bear full responsibility for the mess in parliament," he said. 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