President appoints new agriculture minister

Prime Minister Robert Fico brought an official proposal to President Ivan Gašparoviè to appoint Zdenka Kramplová to the post of Agriculture Minister

on November 27.

Kramplová was nominated by the HZDS party after Gašparoviè accepted a proposal from the prime minister to recall Miroslav Jureòa, another HZDS nominee, from the post of agriculture minister.

Fico said Jureòa bore the undeniable political responsibility for suspicious land transfers at the Slovak Land Fund (SPF), because he had the right to appoint and recall the fund's deputy director, who signed the disputed contracts. The land transfer scandal has caused this government's biggest coalition crisis so far.

The HZDS considers Jureòa's firing a breach of the coalition agreement.