Archive of articles - May 2010, page 6
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First PPP package delayed again
COMPLETION of the financial deal to build selected stretches of the D1 motorway as part of Slovakia’s first package of public-private partnership (PPP) projects has been set back again – this time until May 31 – following an earlier postponement from April 30 to May 18, the TASR newswire reported.
Job portals in Slovakia
www.aujob.sk
Business drafts wish list for politicians
FOREIGN investors’ love for a country is never unconditional and even cheap labour, low taxes and a good location are not always enough to buy their affections. For some time, investors in Slovakia have been growing more concerned about the lack of transparency in public procurement, the lack of predictability and stability in legislation, problems with the enforceability of the law, as well as what they see as the failure to fight corruption effectively. These sentiments have been flagged by major surveys conducted by foreign chambers of commerce in Slovakia.
Best employers named
IMPERIAL Tobacco Slovakia was named the best employer in Slovakia followed by AstraZeneca AB pharmaceutical company and Microsoft Slovakia. The results of the sixth ‘Best Slovak Employers’ programme for 2009-2010 were announced in late April.
Divé Maky hold spring workshop
THE WILD Poppies programme welcomed 100 children from the largest Roma settlement in Slovakia, Jarovnice, to its first spring workshop on April 29.
The pre-election battle to separate 'them' and 'us'
GRAMMAR can open unbridgeable gaps with just a single four-letter word. In political discourse minorities are often condemned to the third-person plural: “they”, as opposed to the hulking “we” of the majority. Doubtless, more often than not, minorities would also talk about the majority nation as “them” as opposed to “we”. While some might suggest confining such observations to post-modern academic discourse on the alienation of the “other”, the recent political debate over the so-called Hungarian dual-citizenship bill reveals that sometimes the division is already embedded in the language used by politicians on both sides.
Jama
SLOVAK has a proverb for every conceivable situation. So it’s little surprise that there are dozens to describe the hole (jama) in which Robert Fico has just found himself in. The prime minister is finding out that it is indeed the case that “He who digs a hole for another, himself falls in” (Kto druhému jamu kope, sám do nej padá), and that “Those that cut by the sword fall by the sword” (Kto mečom zachádza, ten mečom schádza).
Social Services Act unconstitutional
SLOVAKIA’S Constitutional Court issued a ruling on May 18 that found some provisions of an amendment to the Act on Social Services to be in violation of the constitution. Based on this decision, Slovakia’s local and regional governments can no longer prefer their facilities over private facilities for the provision of social services to citizens, the SITA newswire reported.
Malinová’s doctor endorses her account
PSYCHIATRIST Jozef Hašto, who was involved in the Hedviga Malinová case, wrote an open letter to Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák saying that she did not lie about being attacked in 2006. The psychiatrist’s letter is a response to Kaliňák’s statement in an interview with the Sme daily in which the minister said the police closed the case by concluding that the attack did not happen.
Car sales drop by half in April
THE NUMBER of cars sold in Slovakia in April 2010 was 50.5 percent less than in the same month last year, due mainly to the artificially high demand created last year by the government’s car-scrapping scheme, the Sme daily reported.
Institutions and organisations of employees and employers in Slovakia
Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family (MPSVR)
Fico tops most-trusted politician list
PRIME Minister Robert Fico is the most trusted politician in Slovakia. According to a survey conducted by the Polis Slovakia agency between May 8 and May 11, Fico had the trust of 41.5 percent of the respondents, the SITA newswire reported.
Slovakia’s spies avoid the limelight
WHEN Jozef Magala took over as director of the Slovak secret service in the summer of 2006, the SIS was in crisis. A power struggle between two of its top officers – inspection head Anton R. and counter-intelligence chief Ľubomír A. – had spilled into the open.
Young people face tough labour market conditions
THE FINANCIAL and economic crisis has hit young people especially hard. Employment offices report that almost 30,000 school-leavers are waiting for their first job, while vacancies suitable for school-leavers number only in the hundreds. Experts ascribe part of this problem to the crisis and partly to an imbalance between what students are studying and what the market actually demands. They say the quality of schools, which are producing a labour force that is not fully prepared to meet the expectations of the modern market, is also a problem. At the end of March the Central Office of Labour, Social Affairs and Family reported a total of 27,625 school-leavers searching for their first job. Compared with the same period of 2009, when 18,280 school-leavers were searching for a job, this represented an increase of almost 10,000 – and of almost 17,000 compared to the situation just two years ago, when job offices reported 10,976 school-leavers searching for a job in March 2008.
Fewer Slovaks working abroad
THE NUMBER of Slovaks working abroad, primarily in construction and industry, decreased by more than 23 percent over 2009.
Gay pride, Slovak shame
As the tear gas filled our eyes at Gay Pride Bratislava on Saturday, causingmy two-year-old daughter to shriek with pain and fear, my first thought was- where are the police? How can this be happening?
Neo-Nazis attack Slovakia’s first gay pride event, cancelling its parade
IT WAS SUPPOSED to be the first gay pride parade ever organised in Slovakia to support the empowerment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. But the parade planned for downtown Bratislava was cancelled after neo-Nazi groups attacked the march on May 22. The organizers explained that Slovakia’s police were unable to secure the safety of those attending.
Smer representatives file criminal complaint over published allegations
Smer vice-chairmen Marek Maďarič and Igor Federič and Smer's general manager Ján Richter filed a criminal complaint on May 20 in connection to the recently-published allegations about Smer's financing on the basis of libel, scaremongering, vilification and the violation of rights, said Maďarič, as reported by the TASR newswire. "We've announced information indicating that a crime was committed when these people deliberately and mendaciously publicly accused the Smer party and its top representatives of bogus financing," said Maďarič to TASR.
Slovakia announces awards for productivity for two companies
Two companies were awarded with this year's National Prize for Productivity in Žilina on May 20, the TASR newswire wrote. The winner in the category of small- and medium-size companies was DIPEX, of Sereď in Trnava region), a producer of multiaxial fabrics (industrial yarn production). In the category of large companies, the award went to Continental Matador Rubber, a tyre producer from Púchov in Trenčín region.
Focus poll finds that parliamentary elections would end in stalemate
The parliamentary elections on June 12 could end in stalemate, with both the current governing coalition and the opposition parties receiving 75 seats each, according to a poll carried out this month by the Focus agency and presented on news channel TA3 on May 20. According to the poll, the winner of the election would have been Smer with 35 percent, followed by Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ) with 14 percent, and the non-parliamentary Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) with 13.3 percent, the TASR newswire wrote.
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- UK appoints Bilal Zahid as new ambassador to Slovakia
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- News digest: Prosecutor seeks jail for NBS Governor Kažimír as his political support wanes
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- Convicted of multiple murders, Slovakia’s mafia boss seeks release from prison
- News digest: Fico’s bloc wants to save money by restricting electoral access
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- Digital Jarvis is real now. He is coming for your to-do list
- The Kremlin’s security agency has a Russian contractor in Slovakia - no one has noticed
- The disinformation scene has become a tool of media capture
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- A mayor resigns over €2.7 million fraud scandal at town hall
- He designed Gatwick. But this is his masterpiece
- Fico praises China and Vietnam as models, says liberal democracy has failed
- News digest: Violent gang in Bratislava is under arrest
- The Kremlin’s security agency has a Russian contractor in Slovakia - no one has noticed
- The compass points to Kúty, and people are starting to follow
- News digest: Prosecutor seeks jail for NBS Governor Kažimír as his political support wanes
- Slovakia loses another EV model to Spain as Stellantis chooses Zaragoza over Trnava
- Slovak female triathlete shatters barriers with historic win at Himalayan event
- Weekend: Celebration of fun comes to Malacky Photo
- News digest: Fico’s bloc wants to save money by restricting electoral access
- Slovakia plans to restrict access to new medicines amid funding shortfall
- No more photos or bank statements? Slovakia moves to ease residence process
- Top 10 events in Bratislava for foreigners More articles ›
