News digest: New Globsec survey confirms Slovak affinity for Russian propaganda

Police from Roma abuse case to face court again, Germany pulling its Patriot, and an interview with a Nobel Prize winner.

Good evening. Here is the Wednesday, May 31 edition of Today in Slovakia - the main news of the day in less than five minutes.

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Significant decline in pro-western sentiment

The new Globsec Trends 2023 survey suggests that Russian propaganda seems to work on Slovaks. "Respondents’ belief that Russia was responsible for the war in Ukraine stood at only 40%, with most falling prey to disinformation narratives, blaming Ukraine or the West," write its authors.

In comparison, support for NATO membership increased in almost all countries at the EU's eastern border.

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Few other countries have seen such a significant decline in pro-Western sentiment as in Slovakia. Find out more about the survey's results here.

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FEATURE STORY FOR WEDNESDAY

There is a lot we do not know about life

For the announcement of next year's ‘Starmus’ science and art festival in Slovakia which focuses on the challenges facing humanity and how to stop the destruction of the planet, Nobel prize laureate Emmanuelle Marie Charpentier sat down with The Slovak Spectator to talk about the microbial universe, the mistaken belief that humans are at the top of the food chain, and the potential for a bacterial, or fungal, pandemic.


EVENT FOR TOMORROW

Rap music for old people, supposedly

During the 2019 Pohoda music festival the well-known hip-hop band Modré Hory (Blue Mountains) premiered in an acoustic session. They liked the set up so much they recorded an acoustic album and now they are performing live.

See them on Thursday at the Pink Whale on the Danube riverbank in Bratislava at 21:00 PM. Find out more about the event here (in Slovak).


In other news

  • Two pieces of anti-tank ammunition were found in Bratislava's Petržalka borough on Wednesday morning. A bomb disposal expert was dispatched to Jantárova Street who then secured the ammunition and transported it to a temporary warehouse for its later disposal.
  • Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová and French President Emmanuel Macron highlighted their two countries' strategic partnership at a meeting on Wednesday in Bratislava. Several memorandums of cooperation were signed by representatives of both states. For example, the strategic partnership action plan creates prerequisites for closer cooperation in economy, science, research, and education.
  • On Wednesday, the online services of the Bratislava Municipality were targeted by a massive cyberattack, resulting in an outage of the parking system, website and others. According to Mayor Matúš Vallo, an unnamed group was behind the attack and cited the ongoing Globsec security forum as a possible motive. The municipality IT infrastructure was not breached, but the website of the capital’s public transport operator was unavailable at the time of writing.
  • Smer chair Robert Fico claimed on Wednesday that Slovak state officials and NGOs called the opposition a hybrid threat in Brussels and had asked the EU and NATO to intervene. Former defence minister Jaroslav Naď denied the allegations, saying that no one at NATO talked about any such intervention. He added that it was hybrid threat experts from a special group which Fico's government had created that visited Brussels and blamed him for creating confusion. The National Security Authority said its expert had participated in a meeting focused on battling misinformation and hybrid threats in Europe and would provide any relevant information. The Interior Ministry called Fico's claims "conspiracy intended to confuse voters". Police also refuted the claims, calling them misinformation.

WEATHER FOR THURSDAY:

Generally few clouds, but occasionally heavier cloud cover. Light wind. Daily temperatures between 24 °C and 29 °C. (SHMÚ)


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