The President vetoed a bill yesterday, Tuesday, called the Competence Act. The main point of the Act was to establish the new Tourism and Sports Ministry. But Caputova objected to several clauses in the package, some of which were in violation of the Constitution, she said. The bill would give politicians absolute power to hire and fire heads of two independent government agencies, the Statistics Office and the office for Health Care Supervision.
The law also proposes to put the Slovak Intelligence Service, and the regulator of network services – like gas, electricity, water – under central government control. Until now, they are run at arm’s length. The President said the Constitutional Court ruled in 2022 that such important decisions should not be taken in a fast-track session of Parliament.
And the law wanted to transfer the authority to approve weapons sales to the Defense Minister. Until now, export licenses for weapons are given by the Economics Ministry, after consultation with the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
The law will now once again be voted upon by parliament. If it is approved, the Christian Democratic Party has said it will challenge the law before the Constitutional Court.
(TASR, RTVS)
