Monitor: Defence Ministry wants to make active reserves available to volunteers

The Defence Ministry plans to form a so-called national brigade, set to recruit volunteers, who could serve in the Slovak Armed Forces' active reserves, Defence Minister Robert Kalinak (Smer-SD) declared on TA3's discussion programme 'V politike' (In Politics) on Sunday.

The legislation to that effect is expected to be submitted to Parliament in October. Kalinak underlined that the Government doesn't wish to reintroduce conscription or compulsory military service.

This idea was met with approval from Kalinak's opposition number on the show, MP Michal Truban (PS), who can envision Progressive Slovakia lending support to such a bill.

Several other political issues were broached in the debate. Truban criticised the Government over steps made by Justice Minister Boris Susko (Smer-SD) and Culture Minister Martina Simkovicova (SNS nominee) and pointed out that the new Penal Code has led to increased rate of thefts in grocery stores. Kalinak rejected this, claiming that no objective data exist yet to support such a conclusion.

Source: TASR