Two Slovak MPs are to face disciplinary proceedings following a vote held by the Mandate and Immunity Committee and requested by Speaker of Parliament Andrej Danko. The MPs are OĽaNO-NOVA party leader Igor Matovič, Stanislav Mizík of the far-right Kotleba - People's Party Our Slovakia and Milan Mazurek of the Slovak National Party. Danko said the three had made racist statements during a session of Parliament. Matovič controversially compared the situation faced by Opposition MPs in Parliament with that of Jews in a concentration camp.
If the three show remorse and apologise, then the matter will be settled under the Rules of Procedure, committee head Richard Raši of the ruling Smer-SD party said. Otherwise, he warned, they would face penalties. "If they refuse, they could be fined up to €1,000. There's immunity for statements made in the House, so higher sanctions aren't possible"
However, MP Matovič said he objected to the procedure applied in his case. "The ruling coalition enjoys an absolute majority on the mandate and immunity committee. Thus, they can decide that 'we don't like this Opposition MP, so let's expose him to such a process," he said.
Matovič maintains that Speaker of Parliament Andrej Danko is seeking to put him in the same category as the far-right Kotleba party and to intimidate the Opposition. "Nothing I said in Parliament featured the defamation of a nation. It was just a verbal metaphor, nothing else," he claimed. He pointed out that no party in the history of modern Slovakia has used more racist election billboards than Danko's party. He said that photographs used in an SNS campaign were of an anti-Roma character. When asked whether he's willing to apologise for his statements, Matovič said that he regrets if they have offended Jews. "I've even spoken to the head of the Central Jewish Religious Communities Association Igor Rintel, and he told me that there was nothing anti-Semitic in my statement, only that he considers it unfortunate".
