(Reuters) – Former Slovak prime minister Igor Matovic and ex-interior minister Robert Kalinak scuffled on Wednesday after Matovic crashed an outside marketing campaign occasion of Kalinak’s SMER-SSD occasion.
Matovic is an anti-graft campaigner whose OLANO occasion received the final election in 2020 however who finally was ousted as prime minister as a consequence of ruling coalition frictions. He has lengthy accused SMER-SSD and its leaders together with Kalinak and three-time premier Robert Fico of being corrupt and sees them as his primary adversaries. SMER-SSD leaders deny such accusations.
The incident on the marketing campaign occasion underlined the risky environment forward of the Sept. 30 election, for which Fico’s occasion leads in polls with an agenda to finish army support to neighbouring Ukraine. Matovic’s group, led by OLANO, is sitting at across the 7% threshold wanted for coalitions to win seats.
On Wednesday, Matovic drove a pick-up truck painted with a slogan “we won’t hand you over to the mafia” to a televised SMER-SSD information convention and, via mounted loudspeakers, accused Kalinak of poor immigration insurance policies when he was inside minister in Fico’s cupboards.
Kalinak went to the automotive and knocked on the driving force’s window, whereas aides tried to disconnect the audio system in the back of the truck. Matovic then opened the door, and Kalinak leaned in and tried to seize the microphone from him, whereas Matovic tried to push him away and swore at him, calling him a mafioso.
Matovic kicked at Kalinak in video footage, whereas one other SMER-SSD member punched Matovic earlier than police intervened to separate the 2 sides.
Police mentioned an investigation was underway. The OLANO and SMER-SSD events didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
Matovic needed to give up as prime minister in 2021 amid a spate of coalition infighting and coverage U-turns. OLANO stayed in energy earlier than its coalition fell aside final yr and a caretaker cupboard was appointed in Could 2023.
(Reporting by Jan Lopatka and Jason Hovet in Prague; enhancing by Mark Heinrich)
