Archive of articles - January 2009, page 7
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Slovakia's three presidents
Michal Kováč – elected as president by parliament in February 1993, and served until March 2, 1998. Kováč’s term was marked by conflicts with Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar. These began in 1993, after Kováč refused to appoint Mečiar's nominee Ivan Lexa to head the Slovak Information Service (SIS) spy agency. After Lexa later became head of the SIS, Kováč’s son was abducted and taken abroad in August 1995. The SIS has been a prime suspect in this crime but nobody has been convicted owing to an amnesty granted to Lexa and others by Mečiar when he briefly served as acting president after Kováč had left the post.
Popularity of presidential candidates
Had the presidential election taken place last December, more than one fifth of the eligible voters (22 percent) said they were undecided or would not take part in the election. This was the finding a poll conducted by the MVK agency between December 12 and 18 on a representative sample of 1,015 people. The following table shows the preferences of those who said they had decided and would vote.
Construction Ministry row continues
MINISTER of Construction and Regional Development Marian Janušek has refused to comment on the controversial tender awarded by his minstry in which the successful candidates were two companies close to Ján Slota, the leader of the Slovak National Party, of which Janušek is also a member.
Markíza TV gets licence for women’s channel
THE MOST watched TV station in Slovakia, Markíza, is planning to launch a second channel. The Board for Broadcasting and Retransmission granted it a licence for a new channel, TV Doma, in mid-December 2008, Ľuboš Kukliš, the board’s director, told the ČTK newswire.
Ball season opens at the Opera
AMERICAN singer Gloria Gaynor opened the Ninth Annual Ball in Bratislava’s Opera House by striking a festive gong on the evening of Saturday, January 10. More than 600 guests attended the event in the historical building, the TASR newswire wrote, while 140 cooks, waiters and bartenders served them. Almost 100 artists performed on the night. Among the musicians and dancers were Gaynor, the main star of the evening, Mário Radačovský, the head of the Slovak National Theatre’s (SND) ballet section, singer Beata Dubasová, the group Vidiek, and foreign guests such as Boney M.
Crisis hits print media
THE EDITORS of big daily newspapers in Slovakia are expecting the global economic crisis to affect the print media here. The print media must also manage the rise in the number of internet news portal readers. And the Slovak media, especially the print media, has faced repeated attacks by Prime Minister Robert Fico for some time.
Presidential election to be held in March
COMPARED to the USA, the election campaign is a little shorter and the candidates’ election budgets slightly lower, but on March 21 Slovaks will get the chance to elect the president of the republic. The date of the election was announced by the speaker of parliament, Pavol Paška, on January 8.
STV drafts emergency plan
THE SLOVAK public service television broadcaster, Slovenská Televízia (STV), has published two variants of its budget proposal for the coming year. One of the alternatives is designed as an emergency regime in case STV does not receive the funds it has requested from the government, the Sme daily wrote on January 13. Should that happen, management will have to cut expenses dramatically, by firing 340 employees - or one third of its staff - and pulling STV’s new sports channel (Trojka) from February.
The silver internet lining to Slovakia’s media cloud
THE PRINT media are experiencing difficult times. The internet has delivered a severe blow, changing the reading habits of the general public. And the global economic crisis has now led companies to slash the amount they spend on advertising, further worsening the situation.
Piargy Mine: Kremnica's German heritage
CENTRAL SLOVAKIA’s mining region around Banská Bystrica and Kremnica was long known only by the name Hauerland. This is hardly surprising, given that its population was predominately German. The 1900 census, for example, showed that 675 Germans, 61 Hungarians and only 12 Slovaks lived there. Not far from Kremnica was a mining town named Johannesberg or Berg. As a result of mispronunciation, Slovaks soon started to call it Piargy. After World War II, it was given another name, Kremnické Bane (Kremnica Mines).
SkyEurope down to five planes
BRATISLAVA-based budget airline SkyEurope has ceased working with leasing company GE Commercial Aviation Services (GECAS).
Slovak democracy declines says NGO
THE QUALITY of democracy in Slovakia was given an overall grade of 3.1, a mark that in a Slovak school would mean just average performance, according to a barometer published by the Institute for Public Affairs (IVO), a non-govenmental think-tank. The standards, used by the European Union to assess the quality of democracy in a country, are represented on a scale from one to five, with a score of 1.0 being the optimal state of democracy, the TASR newswire wrote.
Technical aspects of gas swap being arranged
To arrange the swap operation of natural gas with Ukraine, the technical glitches are now being removed, Slovak PM Robert Fico said on January 15. Fico said that it's possible that Slovak President Ivan Gašparoviè will meet his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yushchenko on Friday, January 16, the TASR newswire wrote. "It would be another important diplomatic move towards ensuring that gas supplies arrive in Slovakia." Regarding the negotiation with RWE, a European electricity and gas company, to supply gas to Slovakia through the Jamal pipeline branch via Belarus and Poland, Fico stated that it is technically feasible. "The only thing we need to do is to persuade the partners who draw gas from Jamal to provide Slovakia with a certain share of gas," conceded the premier. He indicated that this complicated variant will only be considered if the swap program, or the exchange of gas with Ukraine, cannot implemented. On Saturday, January 17, a summit on the gas crisis will be held in Moscow. In Fico's opinion it makes no sense unless Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko also takes part. "Though it isn’t yet confirmed, I welcome the information that the Ukrainian premier will be in attendance at the Moscow summit," declared Fico, adding that the EU should also participate in the summit and it should not limit itself to the role of observer. "This includes vitally important interests of Slovakia," emphasised the premier, who said he will do his best to resolve the crisis as soon as possible.
State and banks agree on SME loan guarantees
The state and commercial banks agreed on loan guarantees for small and medium-size enterprises (SME) at a meeting on Thursday, January 15, Slovak PM Robert Fico told journalists. The Slovak Guarantee and Development Bank (Slovenska Záruèná a Rozvojová banka, SZRB) will guarantee 55 percent of loans to a maximum of €331,939 (Sk10 million). SZRB needs to still sign agreements with individual banks and this could be carried out in the next month, the TASR newswire wrote.
EU-harmonised inflation rate at 3.5 % in December
The EU-harmonised inflation rate in Slovakia dropped to 3.5 percent in December 2008, the third consequtive monthly decrease, the Slovak Statistics Office reported on January 15. These figures confirm the same trend in inflation when calculated according to national methodology, the TASR wrote. That rate was 4.4 percent y-o-y in December, significantly lower than the 4.9 percent recorded in November.
Slovakia updates Austria on energy crisis
Slovak Foreign Affairs Minister Ján Kubiš made a short visit to Vienna on January 15 to meet his Austrian counterpart, Michael Spindelegger, and discuss the current gas and energy crisis, the TASR newswire wrote. Kubiš informed Spindelegger of the critical situation caused by disrupted supplies of Russian gas. According to Kubiš, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico's visit to Kiev and Moscow on January 14 showed that Slovakia is doing its utmost to have the supplies renewed. Kubiš assured Spindelegger that Fico's intention to restart one of the V1 reactor blocks at the Jaslovské Bohunice nuclear power plant would only be carried out in an extreme emergency and only after taking all possible measures to ensure the safe operation of the Slovak energy system. This would be restricted to the shortest possible time and Slovakia would allow the whole restarting process to be monitored by an international group of experts. Spindelegger will present Kubiš's statements to Austria's Safety Council at a meeting on January 19. This meeting demonstrates Slovakia's readiness and interest in handling this complicated situation transparently, the ministry's spokesman Ján Škoda told TASR. Kubiš confirmed that Slovakia will keep Austria, the EC, the EU presidency and its other partners informed in advance of all moves.
Ministry says 14,800 jobs endangered due to financial crisis
Over 14,800 jobs are threatened in Slovakia due to the global financial crisis, according to the Economy Ministry.
Slovakia gets upset over Czech artwork
Slovakia could ask the Czech Republic to remove a portrayal of Slovakia as a salami tied by a string in the colours of the Hungarian tricolour from an art installation entitled Entropa which was unveiled at the European Council building in Brussels on January 15.
Čarnogurský: PM Fico's mission to Russia was successful
Wednesday's mission by Prime Minister Robert Fico to Russia and Ukraine was successful, according to the chairman of the Slovak-Russian Society, Ján Čarnogurský.
SMK welcomes decision of Hungary to offer help to Slovakia
The opposition Hungarian Coalition Party (SMK) welcomed an offer by the Hungarian Government to help Slovakia overcome its current problems with natural gas and electric power supplies, the SITA newswire wrote.
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