President Kiska praises role of ombudsperson

"The ombudsperson's office should be seen as an institution searching for errors," stated Slovak President Andrej Kiska on Monday. He took part at a meeting of ombudspeople from the Visegrad Four countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) in the northern Slovak village of Štrbské Pleso. "The status and role of ombudspeople are growing significantly at the moment. People all across the world are losing confidence in the state," said Kiska, stressing that this situation leads to an increase of extremism, populism, nationalism and fascism. During the two day-long meeting, the ombudspeople discussed the ensuring of independent and effective supervision over police procedures as well as an independent authority for investigating dubious acts carried out by the police.