"Soros money" was and is being used to support or even "liquidate" certain politicians in the past and is still being used, former Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico emphasized.
In Slovakia, György Soros' money influenced and continues to influence the course of events, said Robert Fico at a press conference in Bratislava, whose words were quoted by the Slovak news agency TASR on Thursday.
Fico, who is currently the president of the largest opposition party in the Bratislava parliament, Irány (Smer-SD), said this in response to the fact that the second largest Slovak publishing company, Petit Press, which also runs the country's leading liberal newspaper, Sme, has changed its ownership.
On Thursday, the publishing company announced on the Sme news portal that one of its previous part-owners, the Penta financial group, is selling its 34 percent stake in the publishing house to the New York-based Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF), a "traditional investor in independent media".
Robert Fico said in connection with the change: MDIF is under the control of "one of the world's biggest fraudsters", György Soros. He added that the partial ownership change, which "significantly changes the quality of the media space", is actually an admission that Slovak politics is being influenced in this way.
Fico emphasized: "Soros money" was and is being used in the past and is still being used to support or even "liquidate" certain politicians.
Fico - who was forced to leave the post of Prime Minister in the spring of 2019 after a series of demonstrations against his government began after the murder of journalist Ján Kuciak - reiterated his previous statements and stated: in 2019, an attempt to take over power took place in Slovakia, during which the demonstrations were also supported by György Soros.
Penta, which is one of the largest financial groups in Slovakia, bought its part in the Petit Press publishing house in 2014. At the time, the transaction provoked loud criticism from the liberal media, and it also led to the fact that some of the journalists of Sme, owned by the publishing house, left the paper, and another liberal paper called Dennik N was created.
Jaroslav Hascák, one of the co-owners of the Penta financial group and one of the key (now former) managers of the company, was detained on corruption charges in December and then arrested by the Slovak National Criminal Investigation Agency (NAKA).
Hascák was released in January on the basis of the decision of the Slovak Supreme Court, in which the robed body also questioned the authority to order the pretrial detention and the initiation of criminal proceedings.
MTI
Photo: MTI/EPA/STEPHANIE LECOCQ
