News digest: Foreigners shouldn't forget about upcoming elections

Slovak-US photographer mapping the war in Ukraine, a tragic car accident, and an opinion about the flawed Slovak education system and diligent students.

(Source: SME.sk / Hej,ty)

Good evening. The Monday, June 6 edition of Today in Slovakia is ready with the main news of the day in less than five minutes.


Save the date for upcoming elections

Speaker of Parliament Boris Kollár has officially announced that municipal and regional elections will be held on October 29, which is a Saturday. For the first time in history, these elections will take place on the same day.

However, the two elections will be held ahead of All Souls' Day, November 2, which falls on Wednesday in 2022. Many people will be heading to cemeteries the weekend before the holiday.

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Apart from Slovaks, foreigners with permanent residence in Slovakia can also vote or be elected.

Podcast: Listen to the Spectator College podcast that features Briton and Slovak councillor Addy Akram.

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Related: How many foreigners vote in the Slovak municipal and regional elections is a mystery to Slovakia.


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Out of parliament, but growing

Progressive Slovakia (PS), a non-parliamentary party, has recorded the biggest jump in harvesting people's political support in the latest published survey of political preferences.

In just over a month the party grew by almost two percentage points, according to a poll conducted by the Focus agency for TV Markíza's talk show Na Telo. The agency carried out the poll between May 25 and 31 approaching 1,008 respondents.

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With 9.1 percent in the May survey, this makes the party the fourth strongest. Their current gain is the largest since the election in 2020.


For a deeper insight into current affairs, check out our Last Week in Slovakia piece published earlier today. You can sign up for the newsletter here.


More stories from The Slovak Spectator website:


FEATURE STORY FOR MONDAY

Slovak-American photographer in Ukraine: In life and war, "hope dies last"

In her early days, NYC-based Slovak-US photographer Nadezda Tavodova Tezgor, 43, might have become a ballet dancer had a ballet teacher not told her that she should not dance due to scoliosis.

Instead, she pursued photography – another passion of hers, working her way up to become a war photographer and correspondent. Ukraine is the first country at war that Tavodova Tezgor has visited.


IN OTHER NEWS:

  • On the occasion of World Blood Donor Day, the third annual Presidential Blood Drop will take place on Tuesday, June 14. Voluntary blood donors will be able to donate blood again on the premises of the Presidential Palace.
  • EU Special Representative for the Western Balkans, Miroslav Lajčák, called the current lengthy process of admitting the Western Balkans to the European Union a "joke" at the Globsec 2022 security conference in Bratislava on June 3. According to him, the Union is losing credibility in this region.
  • IBM is going to recruit about 550 people for shared services centres in Slovakia. "One of the largest branches in Europe will be established here," IBM Director Fridrich Matejík told Denník E in an interview.
  • Prosecutor General Maroš Žilinka has lodged a protest against a generally binding regulation issued by the town of Varín, Žilina Region. In his initiative from May 30, he proposes to remove the name of Dr. Jozef Tiso, a Nazi collaborator and the Slovak State president during WWII, from a street name sign, arguing that the name goes against the law.
  • The Foreign Ministry has warned against trips to selected areas of Egypt and Tunisia.
  • Mehmet from Austria, who was trying to drug two women with liquid ecstasy at a party in the centre of Bratislava on June 4, is facing ten years in prison.
  • The management of the Secop firm officially presented its new research and development centre in Spišská Nová Ves, eastern Slovakia. After Embraco, a company belonging to the Nidec corporation, it is the second major player on the compressor market to have its office in the town.

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


Top stories

From left: Defence Minister Robert Kaliňák (Smer), Supreme Allied Commander Europe Christopher Cavoli, and Daniel Zmeko.

Don't forget to do your shopping ahead of Easter, a tip for a new Slovak National Gallery exhibition, and feast your eyes on decorated eggs.


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.


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