The coalition’s last-minute changes have done little to calm concerns that the approved law – which dismisses the watchdog’s leadership – remains incompatible with EU rules and is primarily a form of revenge against anticorruption investigators.
There could hardly have been a more symbolic date for a government to dismantle the country’s own anti-corruption architecture than International Anti-Corruption Day. And yet on Tuesday, December 9, Slovakia’s government chose precisely that moment to abolish the Whistleblower Protection Office.
The draft bill – twice amended but still widely criticised – was approved by all 78 MPs from the coalition after the ruling parties abruptly curtailed a debate that had been dominated by the opposition. The vote was met with booing 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, though experts say it will most likely end up before the Constitutional Court.
“I had thought this was a revenge bill by [Interior Minister and Hlas party leader] Matus Sutaj Estok and [Smer MP] Tibor Gaspar, but in fact it is a law of shame for the coalition,” Zuzana Stevulova, an opposition MP from the Progressive Slovakia party, said before the vote.
The government had expedited the legislation in late November, arguing that the Whistleblower Protection Office (known by its Slovak acronym ÚOO) had violated...
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...