A shock in the Slovak government. The prime minister's adviser leaves due to contacts with Epstein

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico announced on Saturday that he had accepted the resignation of his advisor, former Minister of Foreign Affairs Miroslav Lajczak. The media reported that the diplomat's name was included in Epstein's latest documents. Earlier, the Prime Minister announced that he would not dismiss Lajczak.

Fico wrote on social networks that Lajczak presented himself as a “great diplomat” by resigning from his position. “I haven't seen so much hypocrisy in criticism for a long time, from all sides. Well, if there is nothing serious, then everything must be used to attack me, even if Miro Lajczak absolutely denies it,” the Prime Minister noted.

The SME daily portal wrote on Saturday that the latest batch of documents published in the USA related to the American financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who died in 2019, includes the name of the former head of the Slovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who was the President of the UN General Assembly in 2017-18. In a statement released to the media, Lajczak wrote that he could not confirm the truthfulness of the content of the published documents, which he did not remember after such a long time.

The documents show that Epstein allegedly offered young women to Lajczak, and in return he tried to organize a meeting between Prime Minister Fico and the ideologist of the American right-wing, Steve Bannon. “I have not organized any meeting for the Prime Minister. Women have never been part of our communication. Absolutely never,” Lajczak told the 360tka portal. According to SME, published documents show that Epstein and Lajczak had intensive and confidential contacts. Young women were a common topic of their conversations.

After the documents were published, Slovak opposition politicians criticized Lajczak and Fico, who employed him as his adviser. Politicians from the two parties that formed Fico's cabinet also expressed harsh opinions.

On Friday, the US Department of Justice published another extensive set of documents regarding Epstein. Among over 3 million pages, 2 thousand films and 180 thousand The photographs include a large amount of commercial pornography and photos obtained from Epstein's devices.

In 2008, Epstein was sentenced to 18 months in prison for sexual abuse. The next trial on charges of brokering the prostitution of underage girls was scheduled to begin in 2020, and Epstein was waiting for him in prison, where he committed suicide in 2019.

Lajczak was the head of Slovak diplomacy in 2009-2010 and 2012-2020 in the first, second and third Fico government, and after his resignation in 2018 – in Peter Pellegrini's cabinet. After Fico returned to power in the fall of 2023, he became an advisor to the prime minister.

Piotr Górecki (PAP)

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