On Monday, the Nation's Memory Institute (UPN) head Ondrej Krajňák resigned from his post as of November due to the coalition's amendment to the law on UPN. Based on the amendment, the board of directors as a collective body has become a statutory authority instead of the Institute's head. President Andrej Kiska vetoed the amendment and sent it back to parliament after it was approved for the first time. MPs approved the law again, thus breaking the president's veto.
Erika Jurinová, MP of the opposition party Ordinary People, disagrees with the changes, believing that they were aimed at hounding Krajňák out and they will lead to the liquidation of the UPN. According to her, remaining in the post would mean agreement with the changes.
Anton Hrnko, an MP of the governing coalition Slovak National Party, believes that with his decision Krajňák admitted that he was not capable of carrying out the work as the UPN head, which requires cooperation with the board of directors and the board of supervisors.
Krajňák pointed to the fact that according to the submitters, the legislative change was also made necessary by tense relations within UPN. "If this was actually among the motives for changing the legislation, the amendment has been personified, which contradicts the Constitution, as the law must be generally valid and cannot concern a particular case," said Krajňák. According to him one of the main reasons for the amendment is that UPN was fully engaged in prosecutions concerning former members of the communist-era intelligence (ŠtB) service. As Krajňák said, the institute has detailed and published the complete structure of the ŠtB on Slovak territory dating back to 1966, has called for increased pensions for political prisoners and has been constantly reminding everyone of the actions taken by criminal regimes, naming specific culprits at the same time.
