ĽSNS MPs got highest fine for statements on Islam

Within the recent effort to refine the behaviour and manners used there, two MPs of the far-right Kotleba-People’s Party Our Slovakia (ĽSNS) received the highest possible fine for grossly insulting Islam in parliament.

MPs Milan Mazurek and Stanislav Mizík should pay €1,000 each as a fine for stating in parliament that Islam is a “cruel, disgusting and inhumane political system” and the “satanic and paedophile work of the devil”, the parliamentary mandate and immunity committee decided on February 8. “The fine still needs to be approved by the House, but I think that this won’t be a problem,” chairman of the committee, Richard Raši of the ruling Smer party, said as quoted by the TASR newswire. “It’s the highest fine possible,” he added.

The committee earlier called on the two MPs to apologise in the plenary session but the committee did not accept their apologies: on the contrary, their remarks last week were viewed by the committee as “repeated misuse of an MP’s mandate”, according to Raši. He believes that the only solution is to exclude xenophobic and racist comments from MPs’ verbal immunity in parliament.

Read also:

Read also: Three MPs do not apologise for derogatory remarks Read more

“I think that there’s no reason for lawmakers to have immunity vis-a-vis xenophobic and racist comments, because this isn’t related in any way to the process of enacting laws for Slovakia,” said Raši, adding that such comments would thereby become crimes and would eventually lead to the MPs concerned being stripped of their mandates.

As for now, there is MP immunity effective for all statements made in parliament. Raši, together with the General Prosecutor, propose that statement immunity not include crimes of defamation of nation and race and promotion of fascism.

9. Feb 2017 at 14:14 | Compiled by Spectator staff