On Monday 12 March, Slovakia's Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák announced his resignation after tens of thousands of Slovaks marched nationwide on Friday 9 March to protest against corruption and to demand Kaliňák's resignation, as well as that of Prime Minister Robert Fico.
These demonstrations were held against the backdrop of the murder of journalist Ján Kuciak at the end of February. Kuciak was investigating corruption linked to the presence of the Calabrian mafia in the country and its links with Slovak politicians. The opposition also demanded the head of the interior minister, whose name has already been mentioned in corruption cases.
"I'm resigning from the post of interior minister and deputy prime minister", Kaliňák stated during a press conference, as reported by French press agency AFP. His decision is aimed at enabling the coalition government of Robert Fico to survive, as one of the coalition parties in power, Most-Hid, had considered leaving the government if Kaliňák refused to resign.
On Sunday 11 March, Manfred Weber, the head of the EPP Group at the European Parliament, tweeted that Robert Fico, from the Social Democrat family, should get rid of his minister or risk undermining the credibility of his government.
Kaliňák had been one of the figures of the dissent led by the Visegrad countries around the arrangements for the obligatory relocation of asylum seekers in the EU. In 2016, under the Slovak Presidency of the EU Council, Kaliňák had moved work forward on the reform of the so-called Dublin system for asylum seekers towards alternative solidarity measures.
A delegation of six MEP visited Slovakia on 8 and 9 March to gather information on the murder of the young journalist and to meet NGOs (see EUROPE 11973). Their findings will feed a European Parliament plenary debate on 14 March. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)