Sutaj Estok Criticises Leak of Szijjarto's Wiretapped Phone Call

Bratislava, 1 April (TASR) - Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok (Voice-SD) is keen to know who wiretapped Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, according to a video posted by Sutaj Estok on social media on Wednesday, in which he objected to the fact that the phone call had been made public. According to him, someone must have patiently collected these recordings, waiting for the best moment to leak them. He stressed that Slovakia is a sovereign state with the right to pursue its own foreign policy. "Our representatives have the right to communicate without someone wiretapping them and tripping them up later with that recording," he stated. "We are talking about the foreign minister of an EU and NATO member state, not some hostile country. We are talking about the minister of an allied country who has been systematically wiretapped for two years," stated Sutaj Estok, adding that the former communist secret service, the StB, used the same methods. In the video, he also asked who would be next. "Today it's the Hungarian minister; who will it be tomorrow? The Slovak Prime Minister? Or the Interior Minister? Or one of you? Anyone who says something that doesn't go down well in Brussels? Please, how many more such recordings exist?" he asked, criticising opposition politicians for considering such wiretapping to be normal. In a telephone call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Szijjarto reportedly said that "together with the Slovaks" he was submitting a proposal to remove Gulbachor Ismailova, sister of Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, from the EU sanctions list. The EU ultimately removed Ismailova along with two other Russian representatives from the list in March 2025. Opposition parties Progressive Slovakia (PS) and Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) suspect Slovakia of cooperating with Russia, citing published transcripts of phone calls. Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar (Smer-SD) has rejected the statements by the opposition. jrg