State of Alert May Not Be in Constitution; Politicians Back Joint Exercise (2)

Bratislava, 9 April (TASR) - The possibility of declaring a state of alert - which, if implemented, would grant the military greater powers and a legislative framework for its operations - may not be included in the Slovak Constitution. Coalition politicians, opposition representatives, President Peter Pellegrini, and Chief-of-General-Staff of the Slovak Armed Forces Daniel Zmeko agreed on Thursday during a roundtable discussion on the need for further analysis. They will conduct a joint exercise to determine what legislative changes the Slovak legal system requires. However, politicians agreed on the need to amend defence laws. The head of state, who convened the roundtable, announced that Zmeko will soon invite political representatives to the General Staff, where he'll organise exercises simulating various response scenarios to threats. Among the politicians will be members of the House defence and security committee, and the committee for supervising the activities of Military Intelligence. The parliamentary committees should subsequently draft the legislation. "They will evaluate, step by step, what the armed forces can and cannot do under current legislation, and what changes would be needed in the legislation to allow them to intervene effectively," stated the president. Following the meeting, Pellegrini also took note of the new Slovak defence strategy. Zmeko stated that neither the military nor he personally cares whether the constitution will include a provision for declaring a state of emergency or whether current legislation will be amended to allow the armed forces to carry out their duties effectively. "What's important is that we create the space and time for the armed forces to prepare and be deployed effectively. And I think we've done a great deal of work and made progress in this public debate," he noted. Defence Minister Robert Kalinak (Smer-SD) insists that the armed forces currently lack sufficient legal authority to ensure the fulfilment of all their tasks. "It has our support. The point is that the armed forces need to be effective precisely when we're already trying to deploy a larger number of new air defence systems," he emphasised. Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok (Voice-SD) described the joint meeting as constructive, stating that the participants are willing to seek a common path. "We must have legislation that can respond flexibly to such situations, and the state must also be prepared to respond, because today, as the Police Corps - and I'm speaking now as interior minister - we're capable of responding to crisis situations, but we aren't currently able to effectively involve, for example, the army to effectively protect the green border. This was the subject of this expert and factual debate. There was agreement that we'll continue it at the expert level, setting politics aside," he stated. Opposition MP Tomas Valasek (Progressive Slovakia/PS) confirmed to the media after the meeting at the Presidential Palace that PS continues to oppose the declaration of a state of alert due to concerns about abuse of power by the government. He acknowledged, however, that the world has changed and that defence legislation needs to be amended. The PS MP admitted that the coalition doesn't need opposition votes to amend the law. "They don't need them. At the same time, I think it was made absolutely clear that if these are matters of such importance, they probably shouldn't be limited to a single electoral term," he stated. Therefore, in his view, it makes sense for the opposition to be involved in such a process. MP Juraj Krupa (Freedom and Solidarity/SaS) also shares concerns about the potential misuse of the state of alert. He believes that current legislation gives the military sufficient leeway, for example, to shoot down drones. However, he is open to discussing legislative changes. "If it turns out that there are some shortcomings here, then let's go through the legislation, address it, amend it, and add what's necessary - we're not opposed to that. And yes, we're willing to participate in this or cooperate with the governing coalition as well," he said. Vice-chairman of the opposition Christian Democrats (KDH) Viliam Karas sees the situation similarly. "Everyone at the roundtable agreed that they want to respond positively to this, and for that, thanks are due to the President, the Chief-of-General-Staff, and of course all the participants in the roundtable, because the discussion was very, very constructive," he opined. NOTE: This story has been extended to include the final three paragraphs. am