Monitor: Gaspar: Dispute Over Taraba Likely to Culminate in His Dismissal

(TA3,'V politike', 13 September) The dispute between the coalition SNS party and Environment Minister Tomas Taraba, an SNS nominee, is likely to culminate in Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) submitting a motion to dismiss Taraba, parliamentary vice-chair Tibor Gaspar (Smer-SD) stated on TA3's discussion programme 'V politike' (In Politics) on Sunday. Gaspar expects, however, that the environment minister will only be dismissed towards the end of September. Opposition Progressive Slovakia (PS) vice-chair Ivan Korcok, also on the show, said Taraba did not concern him, calling him a "bumbler". "The outcome will probably be a process in which the prime minister submits a motion to dismiss Taraba in accordance with the coalition agreement. The dismissal process is not a matter of submitting a motion in the morning and having someone dismissed by four o'clock. I think it will eventually culminate sometime around 30 September," Gaspar said. According to Gaspar, the next parliamentary session will open, as all coalition parties, including those acting as independents, have declared their plan to attend. He also considers the most likely scenario to be that, following his dismissal, Taraba will return to Parliament, where he will serve as an autonomous MP and vote ad hoc "from bill to bill". He believes, however, that Taraba will support coalition legislation. Gaspar added that Taraba was delivering results as a minister. This view wasn't shared by Korcok, who called Taraba the "biggest bumbler" and a "future political orphan" who has left enormous damage in his wake at the Environment Ministry, halted major projects and allowed millions of euros to go unused. "We are not interested in Taraba. This is the coalition government's responsibility," Korcok said. Regarding calls for Maros Zilinka to resign as prosecutor-general, Gaspar rejected the claim that they constituted an attack on the rule of law. He said they amounted to legitimate criticism of specific issues that threaten the rule of law. According to Gaspar, there had been a "massive" attack on the rule of law between 2020 and 2023 [when Smer-SD nominees were prosecuted for corruption-ed.note]. As for a possible reform of the prosecution service, Gaspar claimed that what is lacking is an oversight framework for the prosecution service. Korcok, by contrast, maintained that the call was an attack on the rule of law and its very essence, noting that this wasn't the first such attack on an independent institution. He also pointed out that, if there was dissatisfaction with specific cases, other procedures existed, such as initiating disciplinary proceedings. mf