News digest: Questions surround Italian’s death, new coronavirus hotspot revealed

Check out the overview of news from Monday, August 3, 2020.

Illustrative stock photoIllustrative stock photo (Source: TASR)

This is your overview of news from Monday, August 3, 2020. For a weekly overview, don’t miss our recent Last Week in Slovakia, published earlier today.
Also, make sure to scroll down to our tips for reads.
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Italian entrepreneur’s murder raises questions

Italian entrepreneur Loris Colusso (67), who had been living in Slovakia for the past 15 years, went missing under peculiar circumstances in late July, and was found death a few days later.

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Although the police have ruled out the involvement of others in the killing for now, Colusso’s daughter and his colleagues from the Buongiorno Slovacchia news website do not believe he would commit suicide.

Roma Holocaust members remembered

Several politicians, including President Zuzana Čaputová and PM Igor Matovič, and other members of the government and public sphere have paid tribute to the victims of the Roma Holocaust, remembered annually on August 2.

They all stressed in their speeches the need to remember these events and prevent any kind of violence and hatred against Roma that occur even today.

Matovič has even promised that his government will do everything to end “the politics of the hidden Holocaust in us”.

Economy dropped in 2Q, but expected to rise

Slovakia’s economy fell 14.8 percent year-on-year based on the forecast published by the Council for Budget Responsibility. Compared with the previous quarter, it fell by 11 percent, the prediction suggests.

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RRZ also expects the economy to increase by 2.1 percent q-o-q in the third quarter of the year. However, in annual terms the GDP is expected to fall by 13.3 percent.

In other news

  • Hygienists have revealed a new coronavirus hotspot in one of the companies in Bánovce nad Bebravou (Trenčín Region). Twelve of its employees have tested positive. The company has been closed and its staff needs to stay in home isolation. Read more detailed statistics from the August 2 testing here.
  • The Interior Ministry plans to moderate the conditions for losing Slovak citizenship through an amendment submitted for interdepartmental review.
  • The Czech police have found Jozef Majský, recently sentenced to nine years in prison for embezzling non-banking companies, at a psychiatric clinic in Prague. His attending physician said Majský is not capable of any action, and needs to be hospitalised.
  • As many as 80 participants from 22 countries have enrolled in the 56th year of the summer school of Slovak language and culture, run by the Studia Academica Slovaca centre for Slovak as a foreign language, running under Comenius University in Bratislava. The online courses kicked off on August 3.
  • The selection committee gave the most points to Ján Hrubala, who runs for the new president of the Specialised Criminal Court. Ján Buvala finished second and incumbent chair Michal Truban as third. Justice Minister Mária Kolíková (Za Ľudí) will have the final word.
  • The public hearing of candidates for the empty chair at the Constitutional Court will take place on September 10 in Bratislava. Nine candidates want to replace Mojmír Mamojka, who resigned from the post after the media reported on his contacts with mobster Marian Kočner.
  • The state budget deficit amounted to €3.8 billion at the end of July 2020. Income dropped by €756 million year-on-year, while expenditures rose by €1.65 million y-o-y.
  • The number of marriages fell by 1,513 in 2019, to 29,664. The average age of brides was 31.4 years, and grooms 34.3 years, up by one month compared to the previous year.
  • The Foreign Affairs Ministry is preparing several changes of ambassador posts. Rastislav Káčer is expected to replace Peter Weiss as Slovak ambassador in the Czech Republic, while incumbent chief of mission at NATO Radovan Javorčík is said to become new ambassador in the US. Ex-state secretary of the Defence Ministry, Róbert Ondrejcsák, is said to become new ambassador to the UK. The ministry also plans to replace the ambassador to Belarus, Jozef Migaš. (Denník N)

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