Enlarge image

Zuzana Čaputová in September 2022: New Minister of the Environment rejected

Photo: Boris Grdanoski / AP

A new parliament was elected in Slovakia last month – the left-wing populist Robert Fico surprisingly won the most votes. However, President Zuzana Čaputová now wants to postpone the appointment of a new cabinet – she cannot accept the nomination of Rudolf Huliak as environment minister, who does not believe in the threat of the climate crisis, she said in a statement.

According to the report, Čaputová said that Rudolf Huliak, nominated by the pro-Russian Slovak National Party, could not ensure the proper functioning of the ministry, as he opposed the government's long-term environmental policy and Slovakia's international obligations.

"A candidate who does not recognize the scientific consensus on climate change and claims that there is no real climate crisis cannot lead and represent a ministry whose main task is to protect the Earth's nature, landscape and climate system," Čaputová said. The Slovak National Party, meanwhile, said it was not ready to comply with the president's request to nominate another person.

Election winner Fico: Entanglements with the demimonde

Earlier, Robert Fico's Smer party had agreed on a coalition with the centre-left HLAS party and the far-right SNS – Fico had won the election on 30 September. This means that the left-wing nationalist former prime minister will probably lead the government again in the future. During the election campaign, he had promised to stop military support for Ukraine and to deliver only civilian goods.

Fico is said to have connections to the demimonde. One of the main suspects in the case of journalist Ján Kuciak, who was murdered in 2018, lived in his neighborhood. Hundreds of thousands of horrified and angry Slovaks demonstrated at the time, among them the environmental lawyer Čaputová.

At the head of the protest movement for a "decent Slovakia", she became president in 2019. The outrage over the crime flushed Fico out of office at the time. Čaputová recently stated that she would not run again in 2024.

aeh/AP