The coalition’s last-minute changes have done little to calm concerns that the adopted law — which dismisses the watchdog’s leadership — remains incompatible with EU rules.
There could hardly have been a more symbolic date for a government that has dismantled its country’s own anti-corruption architecture than International Anti-Corruption Day. And yet, on December 9, the Slovak government chose precisely that moment to abolish the Whistleblower Protection Office and replace it with a new office.
The law — twice amended but still widely criticised — was adopted by all 78 MPs from the ruling coalition after the ruling parties abruptly curtailed a debate that had been dominated by the opposition. The vote was met with boos and whistling. That debate had consumed much of the current parliamentary session, which is due to conclude later this week.
The law is set to take effect on January 1, 2026.
“I had thought this was a revenge bill by [Interior Minister and Hlas party leader] Matúš Šutaj Eštok and [Smer MP] Tibor Gašpar, but in fact it is a law of shame for the coalition,” Zuzana Števulová, an opposition MP from Progressive Slovakia, said before the vote on Tuesday.
The government had rushed the original draft law forward in late November through the interior minister, arguing that the Whistleblower Protection Office had violated human rights and insisting that the bill was fully in line with European Union law.
That insistence began to waver on December 4 — four days after...
As the Department of Justice (DOJ) has established its enforcement priorities over the last year, companies in regulated industries have worked to balance risk and react to the government’s areas o...