PM’s calls for “respect” are ignored by his own colleagues

Finance minister proposes massive handout without consulting PM.

Igor MatovicIgor Matovic (Source: TASR)

Welcome to your weekly overview of news from Slovakia. While Prime Minister Eduard Heger makes declarations about mandatory Covid vaccination, his finance minister pursues his own alternative ideas. Lockdown will most likely be prolonged. The justice minister proposes to criminalise spreading disinformation. A citizenship law vote is postponed again. Bratislava Region says a solution has been found for the collapse in suburban transport.

SkryťTurn off ads
Article continues after video advertisement
SkryťTurn off ads
Article continues after video advertisement

Heger’s support for mandatory vaccination sounds big. But is it?

Entering December, Slovakia had one of the lowest vaccination rates in the European Union. The ongoing lockdown has not boosted people’s interest in the Covid jab – in the initial days of the half-hearted closure, it rather seems to have worked in the opposite direction.

SkryťTurn off ads

Since the start of the vaccination roll-out last Christmas, people in Slovakia have had access to nearly every available type of vaccine – including, unlike most other EU countries, the Russian Sputnik vaccine, which was intended to appeal to those sceptical of western technology. Yet, despite the now-disastrous situation in Slovak hospitals and the highest infection numbers the country has witnessed during the entire pandemic, more than half of the country’s population are facing the virus “on their own” – as the euphemism for non-vaccination has it – most of them because they have chosen that option.

The rest of this article is premium content at Spectator.sk
Subscribe now for full access

I already have subscription - Sign in

Subscription provides you with:
  • Immediate access to all locked articles (premium content) on Spectator.sk
  • Special weekly news summary + an audio recording with a weekly news summary to listen to at your convenience (received on a weekly basis directly to your e-mail)
  • PDF version of the latest issue of our newspaper, The Slovak Spectator, emailed directly to you
  • Access to all premium content on Sme.sk and Korzar.sk

Top stories

Janka, a blogger, during the inauguration of the first flight to Athens with Aegean Airlines at the airport in Bratislava on September 14, 2023.

A Czech rail operator connects Prague and Ukraine, Dominika Cibulková endorses Pellegrini, and Bratislava events.


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.


SkryťClose ad