Archive of articles - page 3 - The Slovak Spectator

Countrywide Events

Western SLOVAKIA

Zuzana Vilikovská

Only 728 Slovaks ask for mail ballot

ONLY 728 Slovak citizens who no longer have permanent residence in Slovakia have requested a mail ballot for the March parliamentary elections by sending an application to the special election office in Bratislava’s Petržalka district, the TASR newswire reported.

Promoting the beauties of Slovakia

LAST year the magazine Krásy Slovenska, or Beauties of Slovakia, celebrated its 90th anniversary. Daniel Kollár, director of Dajama, the company that has published it since 2004, believes that the magazine – whose primary aim is to promote the natural, historical and cultural beauty of Slovakia – was able to celebrate its anniversary only thanks to the selflessness of those who wrote and published it for those many decades. Kollár sees the internet and e-publishing, as well as synergies that come from publishing both books about Slovakia and the bi-monthly magazine under the Dajama roof, as the best answers to the challenges facing his publishing house.

Books in English now available in Slovakia

One Day. David Nicholls. Hodder & Stoughton, 2009.Emma and Dexter meet on the night of their college graduation but know that the next day they must go their separate ways. But July 15, 1988, might be the day that changes their fates, changes everything. “The doors of opportunity are flung wide open” for them as their vice-chancellor said, but who knows where they will be on this day next year? And the year after that? And every year that follows?This captivating story, which was made into a successful film directed by Lone Scherfig and starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess, follows the two characters each year on the same date to see where they are in their lives. Sometimes they are together, sometimes not.

Polls predict Smer win, KDH second

IF RECENT opinion polls truly reflect the nation’s political preferences, Robert Fico can start planning his new cabinet now. The surveys predict that his Smer party, currently in opposition, will be the dominant political force after the general election on March 10. The results are so emphatic that political scientists are no longer being asked by the Slovak media to comment on who will win the election but rather which of the remaining parties might form a coalition with Smer – or if a coalition will even be necessary.

Wanted: 1 post box

THE VILLAGE of Štrba is missing its post box after someone apparently stole it. The post box stood in front of the village’s house of culture and it seems that it was stolen sometime between December 30 and January 4, but apparently no one missed it quickly or reported it missing in a timely manner.

99 percent

COKE in Slovakia is less sweet, cars are smaller, sockets wider, and gas much more expensive than in America. So yes, concepts and products do tend to change on their way over the ocean.

Pizza Mizza tosses its dough in Prague

SLOVAK pizza chain Pizza Mizza opened its first pizzeria in Prague last November, the Hospodárske Noviny financial daily reported.

US Ambassador Theodore Sedgwick in Nitra.

Addressing corruption

“IF YOU do not steal from the state, you are depriving your own family”. This is one of the ironic slogans that people used during the communist regime to justify the day-to-day corruption that became part of many people’s daily lives. But Theodore Sedgwick, the United States Ambassador to Slovakia, told students at the Business Academy in Nitra that one needs to look at the phenomena of corruption beyond just stereotypes since it is not only post-communist countries that need to work ceaselessly to weed out corruption. He added that his homeland always has emerging corruption cases but said that in the US “when we identify corruption, we prosecute it and the people involved with it”.

ThyssenKrupp likely to invest

GERMAN steel-processing company ThyssenKrupp will likely invest €98 million in a new facility in eastern Slovakia as the company has reportedly filed an application with the Economy Ministry with an investment plan that could create about 1,200 jobs, the Hospodárske Noviny daily reported, citing ministry sources.

'Gorilla Protest' takes place in Bratislava

Dozens of bananas were thrown and firecrackers banged in front of Presidential Palace on January 27 in Bratislava, as participants of the protest march Gorilla expressed their dissatisfaction with the current political situation in the country. There were different estimations concerning the attendance: while there were around 800 people at the beginning of the march on SNP Square, main organiser Lucia Gallová told TASR that more demonstrators may have been at the rally in fact.

Slovakia’s state deficit fell to 4.6 percent in 2011

Last year’s the financial performance of the Slovak state was better than the government had originally planned, according to preliminary results for general government spending and revenue presented by the Finance Ministry. The state deficit for 2011 was 4.6 percent of GDP, 0.3 percentage points less than had originally been predicted, the SITA newswire reported. The deficit in 2010 was 8.1 percent of GDP.

TV stations defend 99 Percent broadcasts

Slovakia's leading private TV stations JOJ and Markíza do not have a problem broadcasting what they say are sponsorship messages for the civic association 99 Percent, the Sme daily reported. However, public broadcaster Radio and Television of Slovakia (RTVS), the TA3 TV news channel and leading private radio station Expres regard the messages, which present a range of people who are standing as candidates in the upcoming parliamentary elections for the 99 Percent – Civic Voice party, as political advertising, the daily reported.

Slovak police will cooperate with FBI over Megaupload case

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has asked Slovak police for assistance in its search for 35-year-old Július Bencko, a Slovak citizen charged in the Megaupload case, the TASR newswire reported.

Parliamentary committee proposes simpler rules for paying subsidies to expats

The parliamentary finance committee has approved an amendment to the law on budgetary rules for the state administration which would significantly change the way Slovak expatriates may seek financial subsidies, the TASR newswire reported.

NBS sends recommendations on capital stability to banks

Slovak banks will receive advice the National Bank of Slovakia (NBS), Slovakia's central bank, about how to support their own stability and self-sufficiency, especially in the sphere of capital and liquidity, the TASR newswire reported.

Karol Mitrík, former SIS head, is one of the candidates.

Spy boss can now talk about Gorilla

SPY boss Karol Mitrík is now free to talk about – and possibly to shed more light on – Operation Gorilla, the name of an investigation that his agency, the Slovak Information Service (SIS), allegedly carried out into suspected high-level corruption in 2005-6. The so-called Gorilla file, an as-yet unverified document which purports to contain transcripts of conversations between ministers, officials and businesspeople covertly recorded as part of that operation, was leaked onto the internet in December and has dominated political debate in the lead up to the March 10 general election. On January 25, President Ivan Gašparovič released SIS head Mitrík from his oath of secrecy so that he can be interviewed by a special team of investigators looking into the file.

Employers’ group wants to see ‘experts’ tackle challenges in future cabinet

The new government that will be formed after the early election in March should be made up of experts who will be able to tackle Slovakia's most serious problems, said the president of the Association of Employers' Unions (AZZZ), Tomáš Malatinský, at a press conference on Wednesday, January 25.

MVK survey shows nearly half of Slovak citizens prefer sovereignty over EU

Almost half of Slovakia's citizens (47.6 percent) think that the country should choose sovereignty over preserving its membership in the European Union. According to a survey conducted by the MVK agency in early January, 14.9 percent would support preserving Slovakia's sovereignty at any price – even if it meant leaving the EU – while 32.7 percent would be willing to take a risk regarding some questions of Slovakia’s EU membership rather than to give up sovereignty. MVK surveyed 1,145 respondents between January 5 and January 11.

Lipšic: There is probably more written evidence to emerge about the Gorilla file

Interior Minister Daniel Lipšic (Christian Democratic Movement (KDH)) has said he believes new information will soon emerge regarding the widely publicised Gorilla file, an as-yet unverified document that was released on the internet that has raised suspicions of high-level corruption and unethical lobbying in Slovak politics in 2005-6.

Archive of articles - January 2012, page 3