U.K. Can’t Be Trusted With Gold, Top Slovak Party Leader Says

(Bloomberg) --

Slovakia’s former premier said parliament should force the central bank to bring back the nation’s gold stored in the U.K. as history has shown that allies “can hardly” be trusted.

Ex-Premier Robert Fico, who chairs the biggest party in Slovakia, said Thursday his formation is seeking to hold a special parliamentary session on the issue. The gold isn’t safe in the U.K. because of Brexit and a possible global economic crisis, he said.

“You can hardly trust even the closest allies after the Munich Agreement,” he told reporters, referring to a 1938 pact by France, the U.K., Italy and Germany, which allowed Adolf Hitler to annex a part of Czechoslovakia. “I guarantee that if something happens, we won’t see a single gram of this gold. Let’s do it as quickly as possible.”

Three months before general elections take place in Slovakia, Fico is riding on a wave of nationalist sentiment that has gripped many countries in the European Union’s east, including neighboring Poland and Hungary.

Central bank spokesman Peter Majer declined to comment on Fico’s comments. Slovakia, which uses the euro, has 31.7 metric tonnes of gold worth 1.3 billion euros ($1.4 billion) and it’s actively trading it, he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Radoslav Tomek in Bratislava at rtomek@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrea Dudik at adudik@bloomberg.net, Andras Gergely

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