News digest: Climate in Slovakia could be similar to Italy's in a few decades

Suburban transport in Bratislava Region to improve, registration for regulated parking in Bratislava launched, utility regulator announces price caps for 2022.

(Source: SME.sk / Hej,ty)

Good afternoon. The weekend is coming and we have prepared a quick summary of the main news of the day in our Friday, December 3, 2021 edition of Today in Slovakia. We wish you a pleasant read.


For weekend tips and reads, check out ourSpectacular Slovakia weekly roundup. This week, Peter Dlhopolec is writing about a winter date with zoo animals, swimming in Orava and a made-up story about a well-known Danish author.

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Bratislava has launched registration in the regulated parking system for the first locations where the city-wide parking policy will be introduced at the beginning of next year. The aim of the Bratislava Parking Assistant (PAAS), which is the official name of the scheme, is to set clear rules for parking and improve the parking possibilities for residents.

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The city-wide parking policy will be launched on January 10, 2022, in the following zones: Krasňany in Rača, Tehelné Pole in Nové Mesto and Dvory 4 in Petržalka. Until this date, there is unregulated parking in Krasňany and special rules apply in Tehelné pole and Dvory 4.

Residents of these zones can register and purchase resident parking cards on the website www.paas.sk.

“Registration will not be affected in any way by the current lockdown, as the system does not normally require a personal visit to offices, proof of ID or various documents,” said Katarína Rajčanová, spokesperson of Bratislava, as cited in the press release. “As the first information system in Slovakia, it integrates and uses five state registers.”


Photo of today


Feature story for today

"Hans Christian Andersen fell in love with Bratislava. 'Your city is a fairy tale.' This is how he once addressed the people of Bratislava, who welcomed him to the grounds of their city," the Slovak press wrote back then.

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Today, a reader will learn on the internet: "Awkward truth: the saddest fairy tale arose in Bratislava! During a walk through the city, the writer noticed a little girl selling matches on the street. The visit to Bratislava inspired Andersen to write The Little Match Girl and The Ugly Duckling."

The Slovak news agency TASR and online media have spread these fabulations about the writer's "deep impressions of the city" for so long that as a result, Andersen's statue stands in Bratislava along with the existence of the made-up story featured in travel guides. What has been said in Slovakia about the world-famous writer is the actual fairy tale.

He spent only two hours in Bratislava, during which coal was being loaded into a steamer, and never said what has been attributed to him to date.

Yes, Andersen visited Bratislava. The rest is just fairy tales Read more 

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Coronavirus and vaccination news

  • 15,278 people were newly diagnosed as Covid positive out of 42,403 PCR tests performed on Thursday. Numbers added for November are behind these high figures. The number of people in hospitals is 3,404 and 90 more deaths were reported on Thursday. The vaccination rate is at 48.21 percent; 2,651,767 people have received the first dose of the vaccine. More stats on Covid-19 in Slovakia here.
  • The Health Ministry will purchase a direct-acting antiviral medicine with the active substance molnupiravir for patients with Covid-19 for more than €21 million without VAT. A Dutch supplier is to provide 5,760 treatment cycles by the end of December. It is to deliver 10,400 treatment cycles by March 2022 at the latest and another 14,400 treatment cycles by June 2022 at the latest.
  • The Italian daily La Stampa reported that Archbishop Aldo Giordano (67), the Apostolic Nuncio to the European Union, died on Thursday in Leuven, Belgium, as a result of Covid-19, which he contracted during Pope Francis’ visit to Slovakia in September. The Neapolitan daily Il Mattino writes that during the final day of Francis’ visit to Slovakia, dozens of church dignitaries, including cardinals, became infected in Šaštín, including the then President of the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, and several nuncios, the Sme daily reported. The Conference of Bishops of Slovakia denies reports that Giordano contracted the disease in Slovakia, arguing that he did not visit Slovakia between September 12-15.

Other news

  • The expected increase in energy prices for households is coming to fruition. The Regulatory Office for Network Industries (ÚRSO) published new caps for regulated prices of natural gas and electricity valid as of January 1, 2022. Households will pay more for gas (around €5.50 to €230 per year) while their annual electricity bill will increase by about €47 to €172. The exact bill will depend on what people use these utilities for, i.e. whether they use them only for cooking, or also for water heating and general heating, the Pravda daily wrote.
  • Current and previous carriers Arriva and Slovak Lines have agreed to cooperate through a subcontract to secure suburban bus transport in Bratislava Region, Juraj Droba, governor of the Bratislava Self-Governing Region, said without giving any details.
  • In Slovakia, it is about 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer than the 20th-century average. Warming has accelerated in the last decade. If it continues to warm at this rate, the climate in Slovakia may be warmer by more than 2 degrees Celsius in the middle of this century, climatologist Pavel Matejovič told the TASR newswire, noting that the climate in Slovakia may be the same as it is in present-day northern Italy. At the end of this century, it may be similar to the south of Turkey.
  • The permanent short-time work scheme or kurzarbeit will not take effect in Slovakia until March 1 next year. During January and February of 2022 employers and the self-employed will receive allowances to maintain employment through the government's current First Aid package. Parliament passed respective legislation on Friday, December 3.
  • If a criminal authority finds in its investigation that the conduct of a governor of a central bank of an EU member state was manifestly not committed by that governor in his or her official capacity, proceedings against him or her may be continued since immunity from legal proceedings does not apply, as stems from the recent ruling of the Court of Justice of the EU concerning the case of the previous governor of the central bank in Latvia. Slovakia's central bank governor is also being prosecuted – Peter Kažimír faces charges of receiving a bribe to secure political support for the purchase of the e-Kasa IT system when he served as the finance minister.
  • Dopravný Podnik Bratislava (DPB), the capital’s public transport company, could soon be the first carrier with a fleet of hydrogen buses in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. On Wednesday, December 1, it announced the winner of a competition for a supply of hydrogen city buses. The Polish company Solaris Bus & Coach was the successful bidder with an offer of €24.4 million for 40 buses.

Do not miss on Spectator.sk today

Historical house near Bratislava cathedral no longer needs to hide behind Van Gogh Read more  Slovakia surpasses the US in sugar consumption Read more  No popcorn here! Bratislava’s well-known cinema has been on the scene for a decade Read more  Brrr! Orava is full of winter-swimming spots Read more  Spying on the press has a tradition in Slovakia Read more  Culture Ministry looks to create ‘21st century environment’ for Slovak media Read more 

If you have suggestions on how this news overview can be improved, you can reach us at editorial@spectator.sk.

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