It was busy at SIS headquarters. The Prime Minister has convened a security council, coup experts are to operate in Slovakia

After Wednesday's visit to the Slovak Information Service (SIS), Slovak President Peter Pellegrini addressed the Prime Minister with a request to convene the Slovak Security Council. The Head of State announced that he would personally attend the meeting of the Council.

Meeting at SIS headquarters

On Wednesday 22 January at 10:00 a.m., the SIS headquarters hosted a meeting between the force, President Peter Pellegrini and the leadership of the secret service. They discussed the report that was read out in Parliament on Tuesday by Prime Minister Robert Fico during the vote of no confidence in the government. The SIS has obtained serious information about a long-term organised operation to destabilise Slovakia.

The head of state asked SIS director Pavol Gašpar for the opportunity to familiarise himself with all the relevant information contained in the report. In addition to the SIS leadership, representatives of other state forces are also attending the meeting.

"The President of the Slovak Republic, Peter Pellegrini, has received the SIS report, which was the subject of today's meeting of the National Assembly of the Slovak Republic. On the basis of this information, he asked the SIS director to allow him to familiarize himself with all relevant information," the Office of the President of the Slovak Republic explained on Tuesday.

The President addressed the Prime Minister

Pellegrini did not give a media statement after the meeting and the media were also not allowed into the SIS premises. According to ta3, the Prime Minister was not expected to make a statement until later.

He subsequently wrote to the President asking for the Security Council to be convened. He addressed the request directly to Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD).

Watch how the President arrived at the SIS headquarters. He left after an hour and a half.

There will be a Council, Fico announced

At a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, the Prime Minister announced that the Security Council would be held on Thursday at 9.00 a.m.

The Council should deal with SIS information. Its deliberations will be extended and the President will also attend. "This is the plan of action for the next few days in terms of the opposition, the non-governmental sector, what they want to do to bring down the current government, which is built on the principle of the results of democratic parliamentary elections, to bring it down," Fico said.

Fico declared that the situation is extremely serious. "We are not going to subvert the country," he said, also announcing significant precautionary measures to prevent the alleged coup.

You can watch the prime minister's full press conference below.

Prime Minister speaks of imminent coup

Fico added that he believes it is evident that the opposition does not want to go into a fair political competition. He claims that there is a group of experts on the territory of the Slovak Republic that was involved in "events in Georgia" as well as in the Ukrainian Maidan. He pointed out that the group is being closely monitored. It is, according to him, funded by the United States of America.

The prime minister said that the plan is to end the peaceful protest rallies by occupying government buildings such as the National Assembly or the presidential palace. "In a normal legal democratic state, the security forces will intervene because this is a violation of the law, even in some cases a violation of the criminal law. The forces that are designated for this purpose will come and will, of course, start making order," Fico said.

At this point, he said, "all the televisions in the world" will be set up and create an image of how the police are intervening. According to the prime minister, there will then be mass protests and a seizure of power in the country.

The Prime Minister stressed that he respected the rights of citizens to assemble. However, violations of the law cannot be tolerated by the state. He announced at the Security Council that precautionary measures would be taken to prevent escalation, such as monitoring government buildings.

Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Tibor Gašpar (Smer-SD) pointed out that despite the opposition's downplaying, the information contained in the SIS report was serious. "We are facing a threat to the constitutional order in the Slovak Republic," he stressed.

He stated that all the information contained in the report was obtained in a legal manner. He also urged all lawful recipients of the information presented to deal with it vigorously.

Secret mode and reading the message

The extraordinary session of parliament on the opposition motion of no confidence in the government continued in classified mode on Tuesday, as Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) presented a report containing classified information.

The SIS subsequently reported that it had received "serious information about a long-term organised influence operation aimed at destabilising the Slovak Republic."

Opposition MPs described the report as absurd, containing fallacies and information that could easily be found on the web or social networks.

See the summary of Tuesday's extraordinary sitting, where the SIS report was also read out: