Slovakia’s secret service agency Slovak Information Service (SIS) has been ranked as the worst in Europe by French weekly L’Express.

The weekly published a series of articles about secret services ranking spy agencies from 25 countries based on interviews with about 100 intelligence specialists.

“Based on a common opinion the primacy in the category of the worst intelligence service in Europe belongs to Slovakia,” L’Express assessment reads, as shared by the Slovak daily Denník N.

L’Express described the controversial head of SIS Pavol Gašpar as “a spy in flip-flops” and featured a photograph from his car accident in which Gašpar crashed into a signpost with his yellow and black Dodge Challenger, sparking a renewed controversy about the origins of his wealth.

The ranking is topped by British MI6, followed by French DGSE and Dutch AIVD, Denník N reported, noting that assessment involved interviews with 60 professionals from intelligence services in 25 countries, including eighteen former intelligence chiefs and agents from the CIA and Mossad.

Gašpar is the son of a criminally prosecuted police ex-president and current ruling Smer party legislator and Vice Chairman of the Parliament Tibor Gašpar, and has been a source of controversies since his appointment to head the SIS amid criticism of his connections to the criminal ring allegedly involving Gašpar’s relative, the Nitra-based oligarch Norbert Bödör.

Intelligence services in Europe had begun to restrict information they share with SIS shortly after Gašpar’s appointment in 2024, as investigative website focusing on Central European affairs VSquare reported.

In a previous development, Slovak President Peter Pellegrini’s liberal predecessor Zuzana Čaputová declined to appoint Gašpar to head the SIS, but the left-right cabinet of populist Prime Minister and Smer leader Robert Fico restructured SIS and gave Pavol Gašpar the deputy director post with effective control of SIS in a move criticised as a blatant exercise of political influence over SIS.

Tibor Gašpar was the police president during the Smer 2012-18 era and was forced to step down as police chief following the mass demonstrations ignited by the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancé Martina Kusnirova.

He faces criminal prosecution as part of a major organised crime case Očistec (Purgatory), accusing Gašpar of bribery and participating in running a criminal network of Gašpar’s relative Norbert Bödör while heading the police. Gašpar is also accused of facilitating illegal surveillance of journalists, including the late Jan Kuciak.