Archive of articles - September 1999

Badboy Slota faces power showdown

Now that Ján Slota is off the hook for inciting hatred between Hungarians and Slovaks at a March party rally (see news briefs), the chairman of the nationalist SNS party is gearing up to face a room full of feuding party leaders who may remove him from his position.On September 25, Slota's future as leader of the controversial opposition SNS will be debated at a party congress in Žilina. If a majority of the party's 423 delegates vote in support of a non-confidence motion called on their chairman, Slota will be forced to step down. One of two party members, SNS First Deputy Chairwoman Anna Malíková or former Defence Minister and party Deputy Chairman Ján Sitek, will likely replace him, analysts say.Malíková, 39, has been highly critical of Slota's drunken outbursts and extremist behaviour, and has said she would like to turn the SNS into a more mainstream nationalist party. In return, she has been ridiculed by Slota as an "unsatisfied old maid who was not able to get married and give birth to Slovak boys."

Defence Minister outlines armed forces reform

Mortgage subsidies open doors

Getting a loan to buy a home in Slovakia will soon be much cheaper. According to a bank restructuring bill now making its way through parliament, state subsidies will knock 6% off the prime interest rates on mortgages offered by Slovak banks, bringing rates down from over 13% to a more affordable 7%.The two Slovak banks currently offering mortgages - Všeobecná Úverová Banka (VÚB) and Slovenská Sporiteľňa (SLSP) - welcomed the move and said that they expected the demand for mortgage loans among both private citizens and businesses to increase after the law is passed. Although the bill is still in its second reading in parliament, the local banks say they expect the plan to take effect within a month.

Community Grapevine

Give an hour's salary to help a Slovak childUS invites Slovaks to join annual visa lottery

Hamžík: Finland won't grant political asylum to Slovaks

Real estate prices falling around Slovakia...

Bomb damages lawyer's office

Energy use in Slovakia down 15.5% in six years

Slovakia Electronics Industries plant on line in Piešťany

...But rental prices remain static

Unemployment finally down to 19.1% in August

HZDS initiates non-confidence vote to oust Černák

Stará Tržnica market building to open September 30

Slovakia tightens foreigner residence permit rules

SDK warned to stop squabbles

Sunday, September 26 represents a year to the day that Slovak citizens voted for change. Rejecting the authoritarian Vladimír Mečiar and his HZDS party, voters gave the combined parties of the opposition a constitutional majority - 60% of seats in parliament - the first time in Slovak history that a government held such a commanding mandate.One year after 1998 national elections, however, political professionals say the government has not used its overwhelming strength to take difficult but necessary economic and legal reforms. The parties of the former opposition may have been ready to take power last September, pundits say, but they were clearly not prepared to lead the country.

Slovakia wins import surcharge defence at WTO

Hunger strike still on, say Mečiar colleagues

It's been almost two weeks since former Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar announced that he would go on hunger strike if asked to testify in a trio of criminal cases which have come before the Slovak parliament. Though he has been silent on the matter since, his aides say his desire to starve for justice shows no sign of abating.HZDS Vice-Chairman for International Relations and Media Policy Rudolf Žiak confirmed that the strike was still on the agenda, though he added he didn't yet know how many other party members would join Mečiar in his fast. "There is no official consensus about it for now," he told The Slovak Spectator September 21.

SDK MP's go shooting

2001 census: will Roma stand up to be counted?

For most Slovaks, independence from the communist regime began on Nov. 17, 1989, the day that party leaders in Prague announced they would step down from their posts. But for Slovak Romanies, another date stands out as equally important in their own struggle for recognition: April 9, 1991.It was on that day, a year and a half after the actual revolution, that the Czechoslovak Federation reversed its former policy of ignoring Romany culture and officially recognised Romanies as a national minority. After decades of assimilation policies, money suddenly became available for state-supported Roma theatres, publications, and cultural societies.Within a year, state-owned Slovak Radio was broadcasting 30 minutes a week in the Romany language. Seven regional cultural institutions were founded. A Romany newspaper began publishing, headed by a Slovak woman interested in the Roma cause. A new Roma faculty received funding at Nitra University.