Boris Kollár of Sme Rodina (source: Sme - Jozef Jakubčo)
Read your overview of news from Slovakia on June 23, 2020. This is a free-of-charge service for our readers. If you find it useful and want to support us, the best way to do it is to buy our online subscription. Thank you!
FinMin predicts a record drop for the Slovak economy
Slovakia's national economy will drop by nearly 10 percent this year, based on the macroeconomic prognosis of analysts at the Finance Ministry.
The predicted drop of 9.8 percent, 2.6 percent more than April's prediction, is due to the drop in consumption abroad as well as the anti-pandemic measures.
Read more for further details about the Finance Ministry forecast.
Sme Rodina has a plagiarism problem
Within a span of a few hours, two ruling coalition politicians have faced plagiarism accusations, including Slovakia’s Speaker of Parliament and Sme Rodina leader, Boris Kollár.
His party colleague Petra Krištúfková, who recently stepped down from her post as the government's plenipotentiary after just a few days from her appointment, reportedly plagiarised her thesis too.
Krištúfková and Kollár both studied at the private University of Central Europe in the western-Slovak town of Skalica.
I chose this environment because all my life I have worked in tourism. With every single permit request, I have encountered environmental problems.“
Kollár previously heavily criticised his predecessor in the Parliament's Speaker post, Andrej Danko, when the media first broke the story that his thesis was plagiarised. Now that he faces the same allegations, Kollár has admitted to having copied part of his thesis, saying it is "not a tragedy".
Conflict at a prominent IT school results in most of its staff leaving
Most of the academic staff of the Faculty of Informatics and Information Technologies of the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava (STU) is resigning from their jobs. This includes two-thirds of all the professors and assistant professors, and several guarantors and co-guarantors of study programmes.
"We are convinced that the actions of the new dean and his attempts for a power grab, mainly its form, have no place at the faculty and at the university," they wrote in an open letter to the students.
Problems at the faculty started when its former dean was fired under unclear circumstances last year. The departure of the academic staff is most likely going to mean an end to the faculty.
In other news:
Robert Fico will run for the post of the Smer party's chairman again, he said following the meeting of the party leadership and its parliamentary caucus on Tuesday. He called on Peter Pellegrini to step down as deputy parliament speaker and his fellow renegades to resign as heads of parliamentary committees. (TASR)
The disciplinary proceeding with former general prosecutor Dobroslav Trnka has been adjourned indefinitely. The disciplinary commission dealing with his case wants to request the stance of their respective ethics commission. (Sme)
Lenka Praženková resigned as the Judicial Council president on Tuesday. She cited as the reason the lack of support for her work from the majority of members. Praženková was to face a no-confidence vote in the council next Monday (June 29). The Judicial Council will be headed by its eldest member, Eva Mišíková, until the members elect their new president. (Denník N)
Almost one in three university students (27 percent) lost their job in Slovakia during the coronavirus pandemic. Read more about the poll results.
OĽaNO MP Peter Pollák Jr filed a criminal complaint against ĽSNS MP Milan Mazurek, on suspicion of inciting hatred and spreading false alarm.
Two-thirds of all companies have been negatively impacted by the coronavirus crisis, the Slovak Chamber of Commerce and Industry reported from its poll. The Statistics Office reported that 88 percent of the polled companies faced a drop in sales.
Big companies will also be able to request state guarantees for bank loans, based on the latest scheme by the Finance Ministry, within the framework of €500 million a month. The ministry expects another €1.5 billion will be poured into the economy in the coming three months thanks to the scheme, which has been approved by the European Commission and will start working this week.
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