So, the president of Slovakia refused to approve a candidate for a minister’s post, put forward by a new, democratically elected government coalition.
This is drastic, and unusual, but not unprecedented.
In 2018, the then-president refused to approve a new government because he didn’t agree with the choice for the ministry of the Interior. Andrej Kiska said he wanted an interior minister who could guarantee an independent investigation into the killings of journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová, which had happened just a month before.
This time, the controversial candidate was put forward for the Environment ministry. The choice of Rudolf Huliak had already caused a storm of controversy, with tens of thousands signing petitions protesting his nomination.
In her motivation, the president said it is her duty to ensure the proper functioning of state bodies.
The proper functioning of the Ministry of the Environment cannot be ensured by a person who, with his statements, contradicts the long-term environmental policy of this state and the international obligations to which the Slovak Republic is bound,‘ her spokesman said.
Her spokesman described these as constitutional-legal reasons.
The president elaborated that a candidate who for a long time does not recognize the scientific consensus on climate change, and who says that there is no real climate crisis, cannot lead and represent a department whose main task, according to the law, is the protection of nature and the landscape and the Earth's climate system.‘
Also, a candidate who publicly approves violent dealings with ideological opponents, cannot be qualified to lead the ministry.
In the past Huliak has suggested that a conservationist who produced a study on the number of bears in the country should be hung.
He has also said that bears are being used as a biological weapon to destroy Slovakia's countryside. He has said the climate crisis is an invention of an international elite to try to prevent people from owning cars.
(TASR, web)
