Quotes of the Week


"Perhaps the toughest task of the [Slovak secret] service after 1998 [was] to gain the trust of our foreign partners and improve co-operation [with them]."

Vladimír Mitro, head of the Slovak secret service (SIS) describing some of the obstacles he faced when coming to his job in late 1998. The SIS had been involved in a series of scandals under the previous Vladimír Mečiar government from 1994 to 1998, including alleged attempts to sabotage the Nato entry aims of surrounding countries.




"If Smer is part of the next government, it will not fulfill the commitment to close the [Bohunice] nuclear power plant which the current government has given the European Union."

The leader of the non-parliamentary Smer party, Robert Fico, explaining his party's stance to the closure of two ageing reactor blocks at the Bohunice nuclear power plant in western Slovakia. The Slovak government last year promised the EU that the reactors would be closed from 2006 to 2008. Failure to meet this deadline could mean Slovakia's exclusion from the Union.


Top stories

Stock image.

Twice as many Ukrainians work in Slovakia now than before the Russian invasion.


Píšem or pišám?

"Do ľava," (to the left) I yelled, "Nie, do prava" (no, to the right), I gasped. "Dolšie," I screamed. "Nie, nie, horšie..." My Slovak girlfriend collapsed in laughter. Was it something I said?


Matthew J. Reynolds
Czech biochemist Jan Konvalinka.

Jan Konvalinka was expecting a pandemic before Covid-19 came along.


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