Svobodna Dnevnik

[Hadash]

Svobodna Dnevnik

---

---

Mordvanian head of government resigns in unprecedented leak political scandal  
By: Polina Lamparska
Published: Zechyr, 1598


Konrad Novek rejected that his resignation tainted either his political career or the government's agenda.

---

Konrad Novek becomes the fourth Mordvanian official to resign amid a row over leaked tapes.

Novek’s resignation comes barely four months after he was elected President of the Republican Council (head of government), becoming the shortest-serving head of government since the establishment of the Republic of Mordvania. Along President of the Republican Council, the ministers of Justice, Energy and Communications, and National Development.

Konrad Novek had replaced Zdravka Magajna, who had been the President of the Republican Council from 1596 to 1598. Magajna resigned to become Centre Democratic Party General Secretary in last month ruling party congress. Magajna, who was formerly a member of the Republican Liberal Party, only joined the centrist Centre Democratic Party recently, and she is expected to be a Centre Democratic Party candidate in the 1598 local elections.

The resignations come in a complicated moment for President Agnieszka Szczepanska, as her popularity was already waning after Mordvanian parliament passed a tax cut and an unpopular labour law, as part of a series of administrative and economic reforms. Despite the Centre Democratic Party obtained a comfortable majority in the 1596 legislative elections with a pro-business and reformist platform, President Szczepanska’s approval rating fell from 61% to 39% already on Marth.

Now, without being announced who will replace Novek as President of the Republican Council, President Szczepanska is facing her worst time since she was elected President of the Republic of Mordvania on early 1596, as Constitutional Court declared that the recently passed new electoral law was unconstitutional and suspended its application. Novek declared that he did not break the law, but he decided to quit for of the good of the government’s ambitious agenda of reforms.

The leaks have been published for 10 weeks by the Slovogradanski zvon, angering many Mordvanian officials. The leaks are unofficially known as “Handke Tapes”, as most of the tapes involve brothers Franz Handke and Milan Handke. The officials were secretly recorded in a Slovograd restaurant discussing private deals and government policy during several meetings between the years 1593 and 1595.

Franz Handke was Minister of Republican Affairs from 1567 to 1573, and then Minister of Justice from 1591 to 1596, while his brother Milan had been an elected representative in Slovograd local government for more than twenty years (Milan Handke resigned from his role in the local government three weeks ago, becoming the first Mordvanian official to resign in the political scandal). Both were long-time Mordvanian Republican Party officials, as were other officials recorded in those conversations, such as former ministers Rozalija Pengik, Miroslav Pengik, and Modestas Zubrus, Slovograd voyvode Stanislav Kovacek, Bronislav Dragek (who served as advisor of President Aljaz Martelj at the time) , 1596 Mordvanian Republican Party presidential candidate Milovoj Plesko, or Miroslav Stovdek, who is one of the three resigned ministers.

But other Mordvanian officials also appear  in the recordings, such as members of the Centre Democratic Party as Alenka Levstik and Edgar Puusepp, along several military officials and businessmen.

One of the recordings, for example, show a conversation between Milan Handke and Modestas Zubrus, in which both were using very derogatory terms to criticise former President Zvezdana Serebryak, who had recently announced her bid for the Brezedina local election, which she would eventually won.

In an earlier recording,  Bronislav Dragek called Nentsians “corrupt and illiterate dipshits” and “uncultured brutes...who ignore courage and act like savages naturally predisposed to be servants and slaves”. Dragek apologized about such words and declared that they were “out of context”, claiming that he was talking about “Nentsian officials from the Vynnychuk’s regime” and not Nentsian people.

In another recording, then Minister Rozalija Pengik appeared to ask the country’s central bank chairman Crtomir Znidarsek about who should replace Minister of Finance Czeslaw Godlowsky who was about to resign to be candidate in then coming local election. Under Mordvanian constitution, the Central Bank must remain independent of politics.
Although most of the recordings show Mordvanian Republican Party officials, currently in the opposition, the leaks are proving a huge embarrassment for President Szczepanska as at the time of some of the recordings, the Centre Democratic Party was in a coalition government with the Mordvanian Republican Party from 1591 and 1594.  Szczepanska herself was minister of education at the time, although she has no appeared recorded in any leaks so far.

Not every official tainted in the scandal has resigned, however, as Edgar Puusepp, former leader and presidential candidate of the Centre Democratic Party, then Minister of Republican Affairs and, since recently, Minister of Defense under Szczepanska’s government has kept his job, threatening with legal actions against several people, including a Mordvanian businessman who has been accused of being involved in the leaking -which he denied afterwards- and against Demeter Bradek, "Slovogradanski zvon" editor-in-chief.

Edgar Puuseep, who was at the time General Secretary of the Centre Democratic Party, declared in his last press conference that “in behalf of the Centre Democratic Party, which I helped to found, I extend my hearfelt apologies” to party supporters and all citizens “who listened to the tapes with disgust and irritation”. However, Puuseep declared that the leaks -if anything-, prove his innocence and honesty, and he would not resign while he retains President Agnieszka Szczepanska, which he seems to have. While Szczepanska defeated Puuseep in the Centre Democratic Party 1595 primaries, many consider Puuseep as Szczepanska’s political mentor.

In the coming hours, it is expected that either President Szczepanska or the Centre Democratic Party will announce who will replace Konrad Novek as President of the Republican Council. Janez Brankovek and Margarita Gudzineviciute, respectively voyvodes of Amsberg and Paviemes, but without any experience in national politics, are rumoured as possible choices to replace Novek.

Others are calling to Zdravka Magajna to be reappointed as President of the Republican Council, while others are calling President Szczepanska to propose a technocratic government and call snap elections as soon as possible, but the lately seems unlikely, as the Centre Democratic Party has presently a comfortable relative majority in the parliament, and they may force President Szczepanska to deal with a hostile parliament for most of the rest of her presidency.

Meanwhile, Slovogradanski zvon has confirmed that more leaks may be made public in the coming days.