Krupa Announces Plans to File No-confidence Motion in Sutaj Estok

Bratislava, 13 April (TASR) - I'm planning to submit a motion to remove Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok (Voice-SD) from office, announced opposition MP Juraj Krupa (Freedom and Solidarity/SaS) following Monday's meeting of the House defence and security committee. According to him, other opposition parties have already pledged their support for the motion, which they plan to submit this week. He also criticised Sutaj Estok for failing to attend the session. "He's a man who can't handle his job or perform it, and therefore he's a man who should have been gone long ago. After all, we have evidence that is glaringly obvious, such as the scrapping of the Whistleblowers Protection Office, or the disputes he's having with the group of police officers cantered around Jan Curilla, to whom he owes €120,000, maybe even more by now. He refuses to comply with court decisions and he completely ignores the recommendations and orders of the Prosecutor-General's Office," said Krupa of the minister, noting that he's been ignoring meetings of the defence and security committee for two years. He added that lawmakers can only appeal to the minister and have no way of compelling them to attend. Committee chair Richard Gluck (Smer-SD) pointed out that, according to the rules of procedure, the minister has the right not to attend the meeting and to send a substitute in his place. "I don't have access to his calendar. From this viewpoint, I can't determine whether his absence is due to objective or subjective reasons. In any case, the rules of procedure state that the minister has the right to send a substitute, namely a state secretary. We always vote as a committee to approve this. This means that the rules of procedure are being followed, and I believe that it's up to each individual minister to decide how to communicate with Parliament," said Gluck. am/df