The Slovakian parliamentary president Andrej Danko has almost completely written off the final thesis for his doctoral degree. Thus, the lawyer committed a serious violation of the academic rules, announced a commission established by the University of Banska Bystrica in November today.
The Commission thus confirmed a plagiarism allegation in the media for several months against the formally second-highest official of the Slovak Republic. The word „plagiarism“ was avoided by the Commission in its final report on the grounds that this fact does not yet appear in Slovak law.
63 of 72 pages affected
It is obvious, however, that 63 of the 72 pages of Danko’s dissertation largely corresponded to five submissions, of which even formalities such as the chapter divisions were directly adopted, according to the Commission’s report.
Several opposition politicians called for the parliamentary president, who is also head of the co-governing right-wing populist Slovak National Party, to resign immediately. A „scammer and plagiarist“ is unacceptable at the head of parliament, said the liberal opposition MP Miroslav Beblavy the news agency TASR.
