Fighter jets spark disagreements within government

The Defence Ministry, led by the Slovak National Party, signed the purchase of F-16 fighter jets from the USA on Friday, however, Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini of the SMER-SD party considers the contract to be invalid. He criticizes the fact that the purchase of 14 new aircraft worth more than €1.6 billion had not been agreed by the Finance Ministry. The Defence Ministry stressed that it did not do anything wrong, reiterating that the contracts were only technical in nature and were necessary for launching the process of replacing current fighter aircraft with American jets. Meanwhile, Opposition parties Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) and the Ordinary People (OĽaNO) have called on Pellegrini to fire Defence Minister Peter Gajdoš over the move. Otherwise, they recommended, Pellegrini should resign himself, as he has obviously been treated "like a fool" by his subordinates.