Slovakia’s police are not carrying out a coup, the country’s president said Friday, hours after the arrest of several spy chiefs.
President Zuzana Čaputová held an emergency meeting of the Security Council on Friday to discuss a string of arrests that have rattled the country’s intelligence community just weeks ahead of a general election.
Čaputová said there is no police coup, and the security agencies are operational and secure, reported Slovak media SME.
The country’s prime minister, Ľudovít Ódor, said both the Slovak Information Service and the National Security Authority, whose leaders are among those charged, would continue to function. He did not give a timeline for appointing new heads of the security services, SME reported.
On Thursday, Slovak police said they had charged Slovak Information Service chief Roman Alac, his predecessor Vladimir Pcolinsky, National Security Authority Director Roman Konecny, and other high-ranking officials with “establishing, forming and supporting a criminal group, the crime of abuse of public authority and the crime of obstruction of justice.”
Slovakia heads to the polls on September 30 to elect a new parliament. Smer-SD — a populist party led by controversial, pro-Russia former Prime Minister Robert Fico — is currently leading in the polls, according to POLITICO’s Poll of Polls.
Last week, police arrested Tibor Gašpar, a former police chief and Smer politician, for corruption and links to organized crime.
Following Thursday’s arrests, Fico described the situation as a “police coup.”