(source: SME.sk / Hej,ty)
Good evening. Here is the Monday, November 14 edition of Today in Slovakia - the main news of the day in less than five minutes.
Doctors announce protest
Illustrative stock photo (source: TASR)
Representatives of the Medical Trade Unions Associations (LOZ) announced that they will hold a protest in front of the Government's Office in Bratislava on Thursday, a national holiday when Slovaks (and Czechs) mark the anniversary of the 1989 Velvet Revolution.
About one quarter of all of Slovakia's hospital doctors have filed resignation notices in protest to pay and working condition in Slovak hospitals. For most of them, the notice period elapses in two weeks, at the beginning of December.
Last week, the government failed with its draft memorandum, which the doctors rejected as hardly fulfilling half of their demands. The doctors say that they have been waiting for a meeting with the prime minister, the finance minister and the health minister since August. The meeting planned for Monday was postponed, which prompted the doctors to announce the protest for Thursday.
Health Minister Vladimir Lengvarsky (OLaNO), who has met with the representatives of Slovak hospitals in Bratislava on Monday, subsequently told the press conference that the memorandum has been rewritten in close cooperation with the representatives of doctors, and will be discussed at the Coalition Council session later on Monday evening.
"I believe that the steps agreed upon today will be translated into an agreement so that doctors will not leave and the situation in hospitals will stabilise," the minister said.
More stories from The Slovak Spectator today
Border checks: Checks at the Czech borders are likely to continue even after December 13. Czech and Slovak government representatives have agreed on a more intensive cooperation in countering illegal migration. While the Czech authorities say the checks at the Slovak-Czech border do not violate the Schengen Code, Slovaks say that introducing checks at the border between Slovakia and Hungary would be in violation of Schengen rules.
Bratislava stalker detained: A stalker and psychiatric patient, who harassed around 30 well-known personalities in Bratislava for several weeks without the police intervening, was detained on Sunday afternoon.
Tune in to November's mood with the latest edition of our Last Week in Slovakia weekly commentary published earlier today. You can sign up for the newsletter here.
Feature story for today
Otto Smik after receiving a DFC award from Air Chief Marshall Sir Hugh William Lumsden Saunders at Hillingdon House in Uxbridge, UK, on January 1, 1944. (source: Military History Institute)
Otto Smik, who loved planes from an early age, became one of the best Czechoslovak pilots to serve in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War – and the top Slovak pilot. He was one of 250 Slovaks who joined Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) after 1939; nearly 40 Slovaks lost their lives in active service with the RAF.
In other news
The consumer prices of goods and services increased by 1.2 percent month-on-month in October 2022. The year-on-year inflation has been growing non-stop since January 2021, and currently stands at 14.9 percent, the highest value since 2000 (Slovak Statistics Office).
The Supreme Administrative Court overturned the decision of the Banská Bystrica Regional Court to reject the lawsuit of a trans woman regarding a change of gender in her documents. In 2019, the plaintiff applied to change her gender from male to female in her official identification documents. The registry office did not comply with her request, citing that her gender change was not completed by surgery. The regional court agreed with that reasoning, but the Supreme Administrative Court overturned its decision and returned the case to the regional court. (TASR)
The number of Ukrainians who have been granted temporary protection in Slovakia has exceeded 100,000. Last week, 17,758 people from Ukraine crossed the border to Slovakia, while 1,886 people returned. 739 applicants applied for temporary shelter, a total of 100,585 people received it. (Sme)
Slovak battery manufacturer InoBat has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Serbian government, regarding the construction of a 32 gigawatt-hour (GWh) factory to manufacture batteries for electric cars. (TASR)
After reports that Lego took a step against Slovakia's major toy store chain Dráčik, its owner Dušan Víglaský wrote in another post on the website of his online shop that he is the author of the so-far unsigned posts on the website. He accused the dailies Sme, Dennik N and other media of lying and pledged that he would continue posting on his website.
If you have suggestions on how this news overview can be improved, you can reach us at editorial@spectator.sk.
