Kollár cooled down: The coalition found a match! A working group – Topky – will decide on Žilina’s powers

Proposals for changes should be brought by the working group to the next coalition council, which is to be held on Monday (September 6). Adjustments should be prepared on the basis of a government program statement. After the dismissal of SIS executive Vladimír Pčolinský, Boris Kollár admitted early elections if the illegalities continued. However, they seem to have agreed on a coalition council. At least for now.

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A working group will be set up

The extraordinary coalition council on this topic was convened by the head of For People Veronika Remišová. “A working group should be set up to examine the possibilities for adjustment and to inform the coalition council with the possibilities, which will then decide on the procedure,” said Speaker of the Family and Parliament Boris Kollár. The working group is to be led by the Minister of Justice Mária Kolíková (For the People), each party is to nominate a maximum of two members.

Source: Topky – Vlado Anjel

The working group is to examine the narrowing of section 363 of the Criminal Procedure Code and compliance with the principle of legality of criminal proceedings. The government cabinet has committed itself in its program statement to “insist strictly on compliance with the prohibition of negative instructions and, in this connection, examine, inter alia, the narrowing of the legislation of section 363 of the Criminal Procedure Code to bring it into line with its original meaning”.

The result should be known in a few weeks

“At the coalition council, this topic was discussed at the political level, the task of the working group should be to assess this intention from a professional point of view and to prepare a draft solution, which will be submitted to the coalition council.” Ondrej Dostál (SaS), a member of parliament, approached. “The plan is that the conclusion should be reached in a matter of days, or a few weeks, not months.” he added.

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In the first phase, a maximum of two representatives of each coalition party should be part of the working group. “To try to clarify our positions and find a common position within the governing coalition,” Dostál explained, adding that if an agreement is reached, the proposal will probably also be discussed with the prosecutor’s office and the professional public. MP Juraj Šeliga (For the People) said that criminal law experts should also be part of the working group.

Controversial paragraph

Several representatives of the coalition talk about the amendment or narrowing of the paragraph, which gives the General Prosecutor’s Office (GP) of the Slovak Republic to cancel the accusation or criminal prosecution. According to Kolíková, the changes should be part of the planned amendment.

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The paragraph was used by the GP of the Slovak Republic in lifting the charges against the director of the Slovak Information Service, Vladimír Pčolinský. Chief of Prosecutors Maroš Žilinka responded that if the Attorney General does not have the opportunity to revoke a valid decision of the prosecutor or police officer, he will become a statistician. According to him, the Attorney General must have the right to decide if there has been a violation of the law.

Read the joint statement of the coalition parties OĽaNO, We are family, SaS and For the people:

“Following yesterday’s meeting of the coalition council with the participation of all coalition parties, the coalition council unanimously agreed on the following procedure:

– we are setting up a working group of representatives of coalition parties as well as criminal law experts;
– the task of this working group is to review and prepare a draft amendment to § 363 of the Criminal Procedure Code in accordance with the approved wording of the program statement of the Government of the Slovak Republic and to strengthen elements of control of legality of OČTK procedures in criminal proceedings.

The working group will submit the first proposals to the coalition council, which will take place on Monday, September 6, 2021.

The aim of this procedure is to strengthen the protection of the rule of law in criminal proceedings as well as to increase public confidence in the independence of OČTK’s procedures. “