Illustrative stock photo (source: Sme)
This is your overview of news from Slovakia on Thursday, January 14, 2021. This is a free-of-charge service for our readers. If you want to support us, become a subscriber and get access to more detailed news and interesting feature stories from Slovakia.
Sulík won’t leave the government despite conflicts with PM
Tensions within the coalition have been ongoing for months now. PM Igor Matovič has said that he would welcome Economy Minister Richard Sulík’s resignation. Matovič also has the right as PM to remove Sulík from office but has not done so as yet.
Richard Sulík held a press conference about the current situation and said that Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) will stay in the coalition. The party also called on Matovič to respect the coalition agreement about partners not criticising each other. They also want to solve the current situation and set aside the conflicts.
Sulík added that if the attacks persist, he will ignore them. If the confrontation is based falsities, he will try to explain things.
Flights from Slovakia to the UK and Ireland are limited
The unfavourable pandemic situation has impacted regular flights from Slovakia. Lowcost airlines Ryanair and Wizz Air are cancelling regular flights to the British Isles.
Ryanair suspended flights between Bratislava and London – Stansted, Manchester and Dublin until the end of March. They also suspended flights from Košice to London – Stansted and Liverpool.
The last Wizz Air flight from Bratislava to London – Luton before the suspension of operations is scheduled for January 15. However, Wizz Air plans to renew flights after February 10.
Wizz Air has also suspended regular routes from Bratislava to the Kyiv airport, Zhuliany. Flights to Sofia in Bulgaria and Skopje in North Macedonia have also been halted.
On the other hand, flydubai plans to launch flights to Dubai on February 6, a few weeks earlier than expected. They are reacting to high demand.
Photo of the day:
Freedom Cycling Bridge is one of the closed border crossings with Austria.
(source: TASR)
In other news:
The Education Ministry has officially confirmed that schools will remain closed after January 18. They promised more details about the possibility of restoring in-person education for schools after January 24, next week.
CORRECTION: From January 11, travellers from Slovakia need to take a negative test either 48 hours before they enter Germany or immediately after they enter the German territory. The test result must be presented in German, English or French, printed or digital. Home isolation remains obligatory.
They have to have it ready when boarding a plane, train or bus or when entering the country by car.(German Embassy in Slovakia)All people travelling to the UK will be obliged to have a negative PCR test, no older than 72 hours, before starting their journey, and it must be in English, French or Spanish. The new rules will apply from January 18.
Denník N journalist Monika Tódová says she is being followed again, Smer leader Robert Fico mentioned some information about her private life in his recent commentary for the daily.
Petržalka has changes the rules for paid parking. Inhabitants cannot register an unlimited number of cars, visitors‘ hours will be added. Changes will be valid from February.
Slovak judges do not agree with the new court map, they wrote in an open letter that was endorsed by 320 judges in five days.
Consumer prices have jumped slightly by 1.6 percent in December 2020, still at their lowest level in last three years. For the second consecutive month, a year-on-year rise in food prices moderated, from 1.2 percent in October to 0.6 percent in December. The decrease was mainly due to the lower prices of vegetables, sugar, chocolate, confectionery, fish and seafood.
All branches of the Slovak postal service Slovenská Pošta will be closed during the weekends of January 16-17 and January 23-24 because of the unfavourable pandemic situation.
The election of the chair of the Supreme Administration Court will be on March 2. The court will be a new court on the court map.
The National Transfusion Service noticed a decrease in supplies of type A and all Rh-negative blood groups.
Featured story of the day:
Politicians like Robert Fico, Marian Kotleba and Štefan Harabin have not been fined, even though they have participated in mass gatherings at a time when such assemblies are forbidden.
Meanwhile, Lukáš Hudák from Moldava nad Bodvou was fined €500 for breaking lockdown rules after being stopped on the border of the Košice-okolie and Košice districts. He was not aware that these were two different districts, the Sme daily reports.
Also on Spectator.sk today:
