President’s spokesman denies blacklisting of R. Fico

After the daily Dennik N reported that Slovak president Andrej Kiska hinted he would not under any circumstances appoint former prime minister Robert Fico to the post of Constitutional Court judge, the president's spokesman Roman Krpelan denied on Tuesday that Kiska had made any such statement. "The president has no idea whom out of the 40 candidates the Parliament will elect and present to him. The president's criteria are known to the public: expertise and morality," Krpelan added. MPs are set to elect candidates as Court judges at the next session of Parliament, scheduled to begin on January 29. The terms of office of nine of the 13 Constitutional Court judges are due to expire in February. Parliament must elect 18 candidates and propose them to the president, who will subsequently appoint nine of them.