Former Minister of Foreign Affairs Miroslav Lajčák found himself in an extremely unpleasant situation. At a time when the media is focusing on his communication with the convicted sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein, it was revealed that he has been sitting on the supervisory board of Slovnaft since October. The information was brought by Markíza television. She drew on an internal e-mail received by the company’s employees. For now, Lajčák remains one of Prime Minister Robert Fico‘s closest advisers.
Slovnaft refuses to comment on why it chose Lajčák and whether it plans to reconsider the situation after the publication of his emails with Epstein. Economy Minister Denisa Saková claims that the state did not know about the nomination. The company is also silent on whether it considered the diplomat’s extensive ties to the Balkans when making the decision, which may be important for the refinery in resolving disputes over oil supplies from Croatia.
According to Markíza, the remuneration of a member of the supervisory board is in the thousands of euros. Lajčák thus obtained another lucrative post, while at the same time facing the biggest reputational crisis in his career.
Prime Minister Robert Fico still did not directly comment on his contacts with Epstein. In the party speech, he only referred to one of the sentences from the leaked communication, “because that’s how it’s planned”, which he used to redirect attention to the topic of the investigation into the murder of Ján Kuciak and Martina Kušnírová.
Interior Minister Šutaj Eštok rejected the resumption of the murder investigation as unrealistic. The case is under investigation and has been in court for years. Lajčák has commented on the communication only once so far, through an official statement published in TASR. There he said that he “communicated with him as he did with thousands of other important people, which included Epstein at the time.” According to Lajčák, their conversation was purely social. Lajčák also condemned Epstein’s actions, for which he was convicted.
New news: Vienna, calls and connections with Steve Bannon
In the meantime, Denník N has published new parts of Epstein’s e-mails, which were created between 2017 and 2019. The documents show that the communication was active, not one-sided. The most sensitive is the report from March 2019, which mentions the planned meeting in Vienna. Epstein notes in his notes that Lajčák should have offered him a meeting at the “ambassador’s residence”. It is not clear whether it was finally carried out, but the very mention raises questions about the extent to which Lajčák was aware of Epstein’s reputation and risks.
In other reports, there are references to a phone call between the pair and Epstein’s remarks such as “Miro wants security guarantees”. The released documents show that the name “Miro” appears dozens of times in Epstein’s communications.
Epstein also wrote about Lajčák with Donald Trump’s former strategist Steve Bannon, who at the time was launching his project The Movement, aimed at strengthening far-right forces in Europe. The e-mails show that Bannon saw Lajčák as an important contact in Central Europe, although it is not clear whether Lajčák himself knew about these ambitions.
Information also appeared that Epstein’s plane was supposed to land in Slovakia in the past. It has not yet been confirmed whether it was related to Lajčák or his work in diplomacy.
