SaS Seeks Special Emergency Session Over Alleged 2020 Election Interference (2)

Bratislava, 25 March (TASR) - The opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party has called for a special emergency session of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee following reports that Russia, in cooperation with Hungary, may have influenced Slovakia's 2020 parliamentary elections in favour of the governing Smer-SD party, SaS party representatives announced at a press conference on Wednesday. Party leader Branislav Groehling said that he considers the alleged actions to be collaboration with a foreign power and treason. SaS wants the committee to summon Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar (Smer-SD), the Hungarian ambassador to Slovakia and the Slovak ambassador to Hungary to provide explanations. "The information that we have learned from Hungary suggests that Russia, in cooperation with Hungary, actually influenced the 2020 elections, allegedly even at the request of then-candidate Peter Pellegrini, who preferred to go to Moscow rather than Washington and for whom support from Russia was more important than turning to our partners in the Western world. I'm convinced that this is collaboration with a foreign power and treason in plain view," said Groehling, adding that he's filed a motion with the Prosecutor-General's Office. He also indicated that SaS plans further steps regarding the matter. MP Juraj Krupa (SaS) pointed to the relationship between Blanar and Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, claiming that the Slovak minister often coordinates his actions with his Hungarian counterpart. In his view, this also implies coordination with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Krupa said that Slovak diplomacy is pursuing a policy that makes it a "vassal of Budapest". "Of course, there are many questions that we have and will ask. That's why we've decided to request a special emergency session of the foreign affairs committee, to which we will summon minister Blanar, the Hungarian ambassador to Slovakia and the Slovak ambassador to Hungary, to question them and find out how things stand. This is certainly an issue that we'll continue to address and return to regularly, because we consider it to be collaboration and betrayal," added Krupa. According to Dennik N, Szijjarto was asked by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to explain to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that it was "crucially important" for Hungary to make sure that the then-Slovak government of 2018-20 stayed in power, and that hosting then-prime minister Peter Pellegrini in Moscow would "greatly help him win the election". The head of state told TASR that he attended a standard meeting in 2020 and that he won't allow himself to be drawn into Hungary's election campaign or related activities. He rejected claims that he discussed possible election interference with the then-Russian prime minister. Current Premier Robert Fico has responded by saying that he sees no breach of rules in Pellegrini's foreign trip. He also noted that he himself didn't head the Smer-SD candidate list in the 2020 parliamentary elections. NOTE: This story has been extended to include the final five paragraphs mf/df