Blanar Rejects Reasons Due to Which PS Wants to Propose His Ouster

Bratislava, 4 November (TASR) - Foreign Affairs Minister Juraj Blanar (Smer-SD) has rejected the grounds on which the opposition Progressive Slovakia (PS) party has announced that it will table a motion to remove him from office, describing the claims made by PS vice-chairs Ivan Korcok and Beata Jurik as untruths and manipulation spread with the intention of causing harm, the ministry's communications department has told TASR. Blanar doesn't understand Korcok's claims that he still knows nothing about his trip to Moscow last week. "For example, it would have been enough for him to read our two press releases or watch my television appearance two days after returning from Moscow," he stated. The minister also denies that in Moscow he discussed an increase in the number of Russian diplomats in Slovakia or that he proposed strengthening the legal status of the Russian Science and Culture Centre in Bratislava. Nor does he accept the claim that the coalition Voice-SD party refused to take part in the talks in Moscow. In this regard, the minister emphasised that the talks weren't intended for political parties, but for experts. "I'd also like to refute their claim that there were ten European Councils of Ministers this year and that I only attended half of them, because I allegedly don't consider them to be important. In fact, there were eight such ministerial meetings, but if I include the two informal meetings, that brings the total to ten. I attended six of them, and at four I was represented by a state secretary, just as happens with other colleagues from the EU, and just as was the case with Korcok during his time as minister, because they often have other commitments on those dates," added the incumbent minister. The opposition Progressive Slovakia party reported on Wednesday that it will file a motion to dismiss the foreign affairs minister. PS representatives cited several actions taken by the minister, which, in their view, have undermined Slovakia's interests on the international stage, as grounds for seeking his dismissal. according to the party, all opposition parties added their signatures to the motion. am/df