NGO petition to oust farm minister has 41,000 signatures

The We are Forest civic association on Thursday submitted a petititon to Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini with 41,259 signatures, calling for the resignation of Agriculture Minister Gabriela Matecna, saying she neglected of "principal and urgent problems at the Ministry of Agriculture"."The main reasons she should be dismissed are the adverse effects stemming from bad and incompetent decisions in the agriculture portfolio, over which Slovakia even faces potential international sanctions," the petition said. In response, a ministry official said that the ministry "respects every Slovak who voiced their view via the petition and would like to assure the public that it perceives problems in agriculture, food industry and forestry as quite serious".