President appoints Rudolf Huliak as Tourism and Sport Minister

President Peter Pellegrini appointed Rudolf Huliak as Tourism and Sport Minister on Wednesday morning. At the same time, he recalled Dusan Keketi (a Slovak National Party/SNS nominee) from this post.

The changes occurred in response to the situation in the governing coalition and to the altered composition of powers in Parliament. The Tourism and Sport Ministry was transferred from SNS to the Smer-SD party following an amendment to the coalition agreement.

Thanks to the appointment of Huliak, the government should again have a sufficient number of MPs in Parliament, with Premier Robert Fico (Smer-SD) assuring the President of this. The premier also accepted political responsibility for this ministry.       

"You are becoming a minister not because you were long engaged in the area of sports or tourism. However, that does not mean you cannot be a good minister. If you surround yourself with experts in this field and show sufficient managerial skills, you can be beneficial to the new ministry, and I as the President of the Slovak Republic sincerely hope you will be, as every well-managed ministry is,  beneficial to Slovak citizens," stated Pellegrini.

Pellegrini reminded the new minister of their talks and his expectation that the political party led by Huliak will not promote any goals that would conflict with Slovakia's foreign-political orientation or its strategic interests in the form of its EU and NATO memberships. "I can say it publicly today that I was personally assured by you of your support for the nation-state interests of the Slovak Republic, which is extremely important, especially at this extremely turbulent political and geopolitical time," underlined the President.
Pellegrini also expressed his hope that the whole governing coalition, after resolving personnel issues, can return to active work for the people as soon as possible and devote maximum energy to fulfilling its government manifesto.       

Source: TASR