Slovakia's judges during a recent press conference openly criticised the critical state of the judiciary system. After an earlier fairly shy-ish attempt, more anonymous critical voices have finally and slowly emerged from the background. The problem with the courts is multi-fold; While in the Dzurinda years, Slovakia has made great progress to uplift the status of the legal system, Fico's government has found an effective way to undermine, even reverting the whole process. To appoint a dubious candidate to become the Minister of Justice was not so much of a coincidence, resulting in further allocation of critical key positions to loyal friends was more than a bad omen. By systematically putting a firm grip on the wheels of justice was a leap back in time of at least 15 years.
Fico may perhaps pretend being not-involved, since he feels that he as a politician should not interfere with the judiciary realm, is to say the least hypocrite. He allowed his cronies to go ahead with the erosion of ethics, blackmailing, and influencing court verdicts in favour of some interested parties, which is unheard of in Western societies.
The newpapers and other media paid much attention to this initiative - for an open justice. Equally, Western diplomats attended the event, and their remarks are not very flattering. On the one hand, the attention of Western diplomats can be regarded as finally a good sign. On the other hand, during Mečiarism Slovakia had much to lose if it could not enter the NATO or the EU... Once inside the club, the political malfunctioning is hardly an issue to put on any European agenda. And even if the British and the US Ambassador air some critical voice, Fico has already damaged enough. The support from the West is nice, but a little to late.
MS
No comments:
Post a Comment