The news was selected and commented by Miro Kern
1. In the case of Gašpar the younger, it is not about the amount of the fine, but about the attitude towards his arrogance
In the summer of 2024, when Peter Pellegrini gave his inaugural speech as the new president, he said that “decency, respect, freedom, mutual respect and solidarity” should be “our software”. He also spoke of a strong state “which is always a help and service to its citizens – never a burden.”
A year later, Pavol Gašpar, the director of a powerful state institution with tremendous powers, which is supposed to be a help and service to the citizen, and never a burden, while overtaking on a straight road in the city, with flip flops on his feet and a mafia tattoo on his shoulder, smashed his yellow sports car into another car. Nothing of what he said and did in connection with this accident in half a year was reminiscent of a civil servant whose software should be decency, respect, mutual respect and solidarity.
According to the participants of the accident, the director of the Slovak Information Service, Pavol Gašpar, tried repeatedly to start the vehicle immediately after the collision, which gave them the impression that he wanted to leave the scene. Only then did he get out of the car and ask the victims if they were okay. While, according to witnesses, at first he appeared to be aware of his fault and talked about the payment of damages from his insurance, after a series of phone calls he began to question the course of the accident and describe it in different versions. When the participants in the accident were leaving with their daughter for the hospital, Gašpar allegedly claimed that they were deliberately dragging her into an event that could otherwise be classified as a damage event.
The other reactions of the director of the secret service, however, emanated above all arrogance, trivialization of the event, inability to relate to the complicated situation of the family from the second car with a minor daughter (regardless of who was at fault according to him) and everything that a civil servant of a civilized country should show in such cases.
After half a year of waiting for a disciplinary decision on the accident and possible punishment of the director of the secret service from the most powerful party and one of the most influential families in the state, we got the following: President Peter Pellegrini, as Gašpar’s superior, decided to deduct 15 percent from his next salary. The director of SIS announced that he respects the sanction and will not appeal against it.
Pellegrini pretended to be fair and even tried to indicate that the punishment was more severe than usual, even exemplary. However, he did not publicly reflect on his subordinate’s approach to the accident.
