Slovakia: How not to fight corruption

It’s a tragedy, really: the Defense Minister's hubris led him to defy the very constitution he thought he was defending, said Martin Simecka at Respekt.

Martin Simecka

Respekt (Czech Republic)

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Galko sailed into office with the proclamation that he would “use all means” to fight corruption, and when Radicova denied him permission to expand military intelligence powers toward that end, he “apparently failed to catch her drift.” He saw himself as the one honest man battling “an octopus of corruption with tentacles everywhere.” It’s a tragedy, really: His hubris led him to defy the very constitution he thought he was defending. He’s now out. And Radicova has ordered the Justice Ministry to investigate the judges who authorized the wiretaps.

The scandal “has blown up to huge proportions” in Slovakia, as the transcripts of wiretapped conversations prove embarrassing to politicians and reporters alike. The takeaway from all this? “That the fight against corruption can sometimes be just as dangerous to democracy as corruption itself.”