Archive of articles - March 1999, page 6

Quote of the Week

Jozef Majský: Too big for his breeches

Slovak multi-millionaire Jozef Majský is trying single-handedly to spark the so-called 'third wave' of privatisation, in which foreign firms are supposed to swarm companies privatised by Slovaks. It's difficult to know whether to laugh at his audacity or disapprove of his nerve.Here are some recent media headlines: Majský looks to buy private VTV cable channel; Majský buys gas storage company Nafta Gbely; Majský offers state a role in gas company. Who is this guy?Jozef Majský is fabulously, absurdly rich. As head of the Sipox holding company, which he founded in 1990, Majský has interests in everything from media to textiles to trucks.

Fifth presidential hopeful announces his candidacy

Slovak politicians should not be let out on the streets

Cabinet's Romany appointee reports over 80% Romany jobless rate

Central bank says reserves fall not to affect policy

King Ubu bursts with wicked fantasy

A "scandalous play" is how the Paris audience in 1896 described the play King Ubu. Written by French play-wright Alfred Jarry at the age of 15, it is considered a masterpiece of the international theater of the absurd and has shown in theatres and been featured in films around the world for over a century.Evil, playfulness, non-conventionality , anarchism, individuality, vulgarity, and the stupidity of those who rule is what Jarry tries to show us. Ubu is a character who exists beyond time and place, who represents a side of everyone, said Milan Sládek, director of and actor in the Bratislava performance

Unionists threaten strike at machinery firm Martinmetal

State ends February with budget deficit of 3.2 billon Sk

Police ask deputies to lift Lexa's immunity

Police investigators have finally delivered a request to lift parliamentary immunity from former Slovak Intelligence Service Director and Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) deputy Ivan Lexa.Only after stripping Lexa of the immunity from prosecution he enjoys as a member of parliament can the police launch a criminal prosecution case examining the abduction of Michal Kováč Jr., the son of the former president, to Austria in August 1996.On the first day of February, Jaroslav Ivor, the head of the Interior Ministry's investigation section, told the press that a police investigator would ask parliament to allow the criminal prosecution of Lexa and Gustáv Krajči, which requires a parliamentary vote on lifting their immunity.

Slovak industrial firms saw February output flat

AmCham gets new director

The word "more" keeps coming up when Leighton Klevana, the new executive director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Slovakia, talks about what he'd like to accomplish in his post. He wants the group to be more directly involved in building government policy. He'd like more members, and more interaction with the public and the press."I'd like to see a lot less emphasis on networking and socialising and a lot more on influencing the government to make changes which will improve Slovakia's environment for business," said Klevana, who was appointed to his post at the end of February. "I think (in the coming years) you are going to see a very different AmCham than you see today.''

Slovak mobile operator forced to end cheap calls

Slovak spaceman lands safely back on earth

Second domestic airline folds

Slovakia's fledgling air transport industry continues to fall apart. Three months after national carrier Slovenské Aerolínie had its operating license suspended for 'irregularities,' the private line Tatra Air has been reduced to begging the government for a $4 million loan in return for a 66% stake in the firm.State officials are not biting, however, and claim on the contrary that Tatra Air owes the Customs Office 88 million Slovak crowns (Sk) in unpaid Value Added Tax (VAT) from 1992. Unless the firm pays this debt, Finance Ministry officials say, the state will not lift a finger to save Tatra Air from bankruptcy."If we fail to raise the money in a short time, the company will die," Tatra Air General Director Robert Slack told The Slovak Spectator on March 3.

Letter to the Editor: Rude ticket checkers should be reported

Outrageous domestic housing prices daunt homebuyers

Throughout the 1990's, the price of residential real estate in Bratislava has steadily and quickly risen, often leaving potential homebuyers flat out of luck. Analysts agree that the root of the problem lies in the city housing shortage, and say that the government must take steps to improve the situation."The situation has worsened dramatically since 1992," said Igor Federoňko, statutory representative for real estate office Bratislavská Realitná Kancelária (BRK). "In 1992, a two-bedroom flat in [the Bratislava suburb of] Petržalka would run you around 400,000 Slovak crowns [Sk]. Now, that same flat would probably cost around 1.1 million Sk."Adriana Litomerická, director of Národna Aukčná Spoločnost, also noted the price increase. "In some cases, the price of flats has risen three-fold," she said. "Now, for a 70 square-metre flat in Dúbravka or Rača, you can expect to pay around 1.5 million Sk and over 2 million Sk in the centre."

US Senator introduces motion to allow Slovakia into NATO

Financier, media mogul vie for VTV

A struggling cable television network has attracted the interest of two prominient Slovak entrepreneurs - media mogul Pavol Rusko and business magnate Jozef Majský - both of whom say they are considering buying the station.However, the two men already own other media properties, and have close connections to the Party of Civic Reconciliation (SOP), a member of the government coalition. Media experts warned that if either were allowed to purchase VTV, the cable station in question, it would result in a conflict of interest.Rusko's wife, Viera Rusková, is a member of parliament for the SOP, as is Majský's partner Diana Dubovská. What is more, Rusko is general director of the private television channel TV Markíza, whose open promotion of the SOP party and its chairman, Rudolf Schuster, has been documented in the past by international media monitoring groups.