Archive of articles - September 2002, page 14

Battle for a disappearing consonant

Top Pick: Heritage festival shows off national culture

AN ANNUAL festival celebrating Slovakia's historical monuments in September will allow thousands of tourists and local citizens to tour sites normally closed to the public.The festival is part of a yearly Europe-wide celebration of history called European Heritage Days (in Slovakia known as Dni európskeho kultúrneho dedičstva). As millions of people across the continent visit historical monuments during the coming month, Slovaks too will be flocking to their country's most famous - as well as least known - cultural landmarks."The main point of the festival is to focus on the public, which means making cultural values accessible to everyone," said Jaroslav Liptay of the Ministry of Culture, which is supervising the event in this country.

Quote of the Week

Harabin holds out for Council money

Political programmes poor posit pundits

Father Schuster alive in Vienna: Don't cry for me, Slovak health care

AND SO he was off, with a geriatric wave from his six-car presidential colonnade. The nation's head of state, a Catholic Communist, a man of contradictions, taking his moderate fever for treatment in Vienna.In the three years that Rudolf Schuster, 68, has been president of Slovakia the people have been kept 'amuthed' by his perforated colon, his kidnapping by Amazon Indians, his holiday diarrhea, his two-ring stove in the Presidential Palace, his dream of solving the lack of water in the Holy Land, his singing career, his several books (one of which, written about him, was called 'Don't Cry Mummy, Father is Still Alive').Father is, indeed, still alive, but would apparently have us know it's no thanks to Slovak doctors. He departed August 27 for a Vienna hospital after a Bratislava medical team was unable to diagnose his recurring fever. In doing so he delivered an outrageous insult to his country, inviting yet more guffaws from abroad that Slovakia can't even look after the minor medical complaints of its top officials.

Countrywide Events

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Chemical firms' profits down

SNS boss caught sticking up posters

Ailing Schuster moves to Austria

PRESIDENT Rudolf Schuster was taken to a Vienna hospital on August 27 after top Slovak doctors admitted they had been stymied by the head of state's mysterious week-long illness.Schuster, who underwent a series of operations in Austria's Innsbruck two years ago to treat a ruptured colon, was first admitted to Bratislava's Military Hospital on August 22 with a high fever.After blood tests and intense diagnostic efforts failed to identify the cause of the president's illness, however, Schuster accepted an offer from Austrian President Thomas Klestil to seek treatment at Vienna's AHK General Hospital.

Who is the KDH: Anti-communists returning to fundamentalist roots

THE RULING CHRISTIAN Democratic Movement (KDH), led by Pavol Hrušovský, has since 2000 embraced a conservative right-wing doctrine twinned with a return to the party's roots - passionate opposition to communism.Following a power struggle two years ago between pragmatists and fundamentalists in the KDH, and the resulting departure of the party's more liberal politicians, the KDH's ranks are now filled with long-time faithful, many of whom have been active in local government. The party also maintains a keen interest in security - a relic, says political analyst Grigorij Mesežnikov, of the KDH's historic opposition to communism."The KDH is a clearly a party opposed to communism, to the communist regime and to the people who were involved in it," said Mesežnikov, head of the Institute for Public Affairs (IVO) think tank.

Reader feedback: Nothing but generalisations

Markíza climbs down from defiance of state regulator

THE PRIVATE TV station Markíza, co-owned by Ano political party leader Pavol Rusko, finally agreed on August 28 to comply with sanctions by a state media watchdog for using news air time to promote Ano in the lead-up to September general elections.While the station agreed to broadcast a message stating that Markíza had broken the law by giving Ano preferential coverage, Markíza general director Vladimír Repčík insisted the decision should not be interpreted as an admission the station had violated any rules."We are broadcasting the message mainly in order that this campaign against Markíza does not continue, and in order that it does not become part of the pre-election campaign," he said.

McCain: HZDS must explain past

Skinhead assailants caught within minutes

Slovak labour costs lowest in V4

Poll: HZDS opposition party no longer most popular

AFTER YEARS of leading the field, former PM Vladimír Mečiar's opposition Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) fell to second place in a recent survey of voter preferences ahead of upcoming general elections.The HZDS, which at times in the 1990s held over 30 per cent support, fell to 18.1 per cent in early August behind the Smer party of ambitious would-be PM Robert Fico, which scored 18.7 per cent and took the lead for the first time since its 2000 birth.While the HZDS' support had fallen dramatically in July to under 20 per cent following the formation of a breakaway faction, the Movement for Democracy (HZD), it was not until this month's Focus agency poll that the party lost its leadership outright.

Reader feedback: Roma must do more

Cashing in Russian debt