Archive of articles - October 1999, page 7

Community Grapevine

Weekly discussions commemorate the Velvet Revolution's 10th anniversaryAmerica marks the Velvet Revolution with exhibitions and speeches

Foreigner residence rules revised, but not tightened

Though some minor changes are being made in the law which regulates how long foreigners may stay in Slovakia, representatives of the Interior Ministry denied last week that the Slovak Cabinet had approved draft legislation which could make the residence permit process more difficult.According to Marián Čambálik, the Head of the Border and Foreign Police of the Slovak police Presidium, the revised draft on long and short term residence permits only changes the law minimally.On September 22, the SITA news agency reported that the new legislation would require foreigners wishing to apply for long- or short-term residence in Slovakia to submit their application at a Slovak Embassy in their home country, thereby allowing for the proper verification of the applicant's identification documents. That would seem to make the current process more difficult.

Prime Minster Dzurinda 'just wants to finish' Košice Marathon

He may not be the fastest finisher in Košice October 3, but he should be able to avoid being disqualified from the race. That's how Prime Minister Mikuáš Dzurinda assessed his chances in the Košice Marathon, which he will run for the 12th time on Sunday."Any time over 4 hours," he said with a smile, "is not running - it's walking."This year, 1,011 runners from 25 countries will compete in the marathon, which at 75 is the oldest marathon race in Europe. Since the first 42 kilometre run in 1924, over 22,000 men and 740 women from 59 different countries have participated - including one winner - Abebe Bikila of Ethiopia - who ran without shoes in the 1950's.

Devín Banka's pretax earnings up 60% in 1H99

Huge union rally turns political

About 40,000 workers gathered at a mass rally in Bratislava September 25 to call for reduced working hours and protest the economic policy of the Slovak government. Though rally organizers called the protest apolitical, some demonstrators called for the dismissal of the Slovak cabinet and others prevented Finance Minister Brigita Schmögnerová from taking the rally stage.According to the Confederation of Labour Unions (KOZ), which organised the event, the participating union members represented 1.3 million Slovak workers from a wide range of Slovak industries and public services. Many were carried to Bratislava by 850 hired coach buses from around Slovakia. Among them were 12 headline-making employees of Pratex Čadca factory, who have not been paid for more than five months.

Union boss Ivan Saktor: Failing the test of leadership

So Slovakia's unions finally found their voice, showing up 40,000 strong in the late September sunshine to bawl criticisms at the current government's handling of the economy. But where were these brave souls two or three years ago, when the Mečiar government plunged the Slovak economy into debt, sabotaged the NATO referendum, gutted the nation's culture programmes and spoiled the country's EU chances?Finance Minister Brigita Schmögnerová, the only government minister brave (or foolish) enough to attempt to speak at the rally, was refused access to the microphone by union security guards. She had come, she said later, "to tell people the truth," and to "hold up a mirror and ask the unions" where they had been during the Mečiar era, when other citizens were massing on frozen squares to fight for the nation's fragile democracy.

Tax reform package makes tentative cuts

A tax reform package presented by the Ministry of Finance on September 23 proposes to cut both corporate and personal income taxes, and radically lowers the tax burden on small businesses. But economic professionals and labour leaders say the reform gives little incentive to foreign investors to settle in Slovakia, and does not sufficiently compensate Slovak workers for the effects that recent price hikes have had on their wallets.The draft package contains four items. Corporate tax is set to fall from 40% to 35%, while various tax breaks for foreign investors will be introduced and remain valid through the year 2002.

Slovak Macbeth wins top honours at Nitra Theater Festival 1999

Fourteen performing groups from nine countries gathered in Nitra last week to present contemporary stagings of classical theater at the Nitra Theater Festival '99. To mark the importance of the festival, the Polish, Czech, Hungarian, and Slovak culture ministers all attended the festival's opening ceremony September 24, and stayed on until the next day to discuss cooperation in the area of culture.The award for the best theatre performance at this eighth international festival was given to Nitra's own Divadlo Andreja Bagara for its staging of Macbeth, directed by Czech Vladimír Morávek. The performance also won best director and two other awards.

Child killed by drunk-driving police officer

HZDS divorces old media mouthpiece

Officials with the opposition Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) party have announced their intention to sever ties with the party's traditional mouthpiece, the pro-HZDS daily newspaper Slovenská Republika. The daily has offered almost exclusive access to the members of ruling governments under former Prime Minister and HZDS Chairman Vladimír Mečiar since its establishment in 1993.HZDS Vice Chairman Rudolf Žiak said on September 21 that the party's decision had been taken on the basis of recent changes at the daily which, the HZDS feared, would turn the paper against its former sponsors. Žiak said that Republika's owners had refused to meet party representatives after an ownership shuffle in early September, adding, "we know for certain that they are not HZDS-positive people."

Cabinet passes strategy to aid Romany minority

Flights to Czech Rep. re-routed over Poland and Austria

Greenpeace nuke protest plans foiled

Out of thin air

We, the citizens of this country, enjoy living under illusions, which is why we are permanently disappointed. Illusions by definition are an inability to see reality for what it is or to influence what is going on around us. In the past these illusions used to be fashionable. For example, ten years ago the communist regime collapsed. That was reality, and it surprised us. We had been living under the illusion that communism would be here forever, and that we had to get used to it. Nobody expected it to end so quickly, and it left us with nagging worries. Why had nobody bothered to inform us of such an important historical event? What did it mean? Why didn't they tell us that socialism would be followed by another period of capitalism? If we had known, we could have at least prepared ourselves psychologically for the day that communism ended. It was, quite simply, unfair. Out of thin air, we lost the yoke of slavery which we had grown accustomed to and which had begun to seem bearable.

Fake Italian bank note distributors nabbed

Nuclear deal spurned by Austria

Slovakia announced on September 28 that it would be shutting down two nuclear blocks at its Jaslovské Bohunice plant in 2006 and 2008, earlier than originally planned. The move came after weeks of pressure on the government from non-nuclear Austria, which had threatened to block Slovakia's EU aspirations unless the aging reactors were shut down ahead of schedule.Slovak Deputy Foreign Minister Ján Figeĺ made the announcement before the European Commission (EC) in Brussels, which accepted the decision. "The Slovak cabinet has set a deadline for the closure of the [nuclear] blocks that is in advance of their lifespans. In other words, we fulfilled the EC's demands, and the commission praised this gesture," said František Šebej, the head of the Slovak Parliamentary Committee for EU Integration.

Finance Ministry predicts 2000 GDP growth of 2.5%

Slovak government supports Serbian opposition parties

Figel in Brussels to earn European Parliament support