Foreign and European Affairs Minister Miroslav Lajčak (Smer-SD nominee) considers any connections between organised crime and top political officials to be unacceptable, stated his spokesman Peter Susko on Monday. "Making accusations without evidence won't help anyone or anything. At a moment when the character of the state and its citizens are at stake, politicians shouldn't be guided by emotions but by pragmatism because it is they who should shoulder the burden of responsibility for the future of the country," concluded the statement. Earlier in the day his deputy Ivan Korčok said that political developments in Slovakia are not influenced by foreign forces. This came in reaction to Prime Minister Robert Fico's accusation of financier George Soros' interference in Slovak politics.
The Prime Minister's statements on George Soros have been only the last in a series of challenging moments for Slovak diplomacy over the past week. The murder of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancé and alleged political corruption reaching the Cabinet Office attracted international attention to Slovakia. The European Commission will look into allegations that funds for agriculture in eastern Slovakia were misused by companies with links to the Italian mafia, as reported by Kuciak in his last, unfinished article. Additionally, European Parliament is sending a special investigative mission to Slovakia in connection with an investigation into the cases on which he was working. Political analyst Pavol Baboš from Comenius University in Bratislava says that all these have a negative impact on Slovakia's image abroad.
Political analyst Pavol Babos
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The deputy foreign minister himself seems fully aware of this, according to one of his posts via social media. "For more than 25 years in diplomacy, I know what implications internal politics have for a country's international position. It is therefore necessary to handle this difficult situation in a way that does not harm the international respect which Slovakia now has, especially in Central Europe. Building a good reputation has cost us a lot of effort and we must do our best to not lose our favourable position", Korčok wrote.
