List of author's articles, page 2
STV faces crisis
THE SITUATION in the publicly owned broadcaster Slovak Television (STV) is even more critical now than it was nine months ago, before Štefan Nižňanský was elected the new general director and STV was leaderless.
US ambassador with Slovak roots departs
SLOVAKIA’S inclusion in the US Visa Waiver Program, enabling Slovak tourists and business visitors to travel to the United States without a visa, and the official visit of Slovak president Ivan Gašparovič to the US are the two things outgoing US Ambassador Vincent Obsitnik considers the biggest successes of his thirteen months in post.
Democracy deterioratesDemocracy deteriorates
THE STATE and quality of democracy in Slovakia deteriorated in the last quarter of 2008. That is the conclusion from the Barometer poll conducted by the non-governmental think tank, the Institute for Public Affairs (IVO). Moreover, it said, this period was marked by growing party cronyism and alarming tendencies to limit individual and human rights.
Slovaks react to Obama
THERE is worldwide optimism that Barack Obama's presidency will improve US relations with the rest of the world, a BBC World Service poll suggests. Slovak political officials expect, too, that relations between the US and the European Union as a whole will improve, and that that will include Slovakia as well.
Kubiš stays on for crisis
JÁN Kubiš, the foreign affairs minister, is to stay in his post despite Prime Minister Robert Fico agreeing late last year that he would leave to take up a senior job at the United Nations. Kubiš' departure has been postponed at Fico's request, because of the protracted natural gas crisis.
Crisis hits print media
THE EDITORS of big daily newspapers in Slovakia are expecting the global economic crisis to affect the print media here. The print media must also manage the rise in the number of internet news portal readers. And the Slovak media, especially the print media, has faced repeated attacks by Prime Minister Robert Fico for some time.
Presidential election to be held in March
COMPARED to the USA, the election campaign is a little shorter and the candidates’ election budgets slightly lower, but on March 21 Slovaks will get the chance to elect the president of the republic. The date of the election was announced by the speaker of parliament, Pavol Paška, on January 8.
President vetoes book law
PRESIDENT Ivan Gašparovič has refused to sign an amendment passed by parliament, which would have allowed geographical names in school textbooks for Hungarian language schools to be written in Hungarian. According to Gašparovič, the amendment contradicts several laws and he returned it to parliament.
Energy crisis looms as all gas imports cease
MOST of central and eastern Europe has entered 2009 with a major gas-supply headache. Russia cut the flow of natural gas to most of its European customers and by January 7 the flow to Slovakia and other European countries had stopped completely.
Gašparovič hails openness in speech
SLOVAKIA has integrated itself among the economically developed countries of the world and has also gained recognition through its principled international policy, Slovak president Ivan Gašparovič said in his traditional New Year’s address. His speech was broadcast by Slovak Television (STV), a publicly-owned broadcaster, on January 1.
The president
He has a reputation as a peace broker because of his contribution to the peaceful separation of Czechoslovakia as the speaker of the federal assembly in 1992. On the other hand, after becoming Slovakia’s first post-revolution president from 1993 to 1998, he found himself in serious conflict with the new country’s authoritarian prime minister, Vladimír Mečiar, and experienced a turbulent few years both in office and in his private life.
A look at the political year
THE YEAR 2008 was notable in Slovakia for its economic stability and corruption scandals, say political analysts. They also mentioned the worsening of Slovak-Hungarian relations, the ruling coalition’s enduring popularity among voters and the opposition’s inability to unify.
A roundup of the year in news
SIX Cabinet ministers have resigned or been dismissed from the ruling coalition since June 2006 and relations with Hungary are often stormy. Yet the coalition – Robert Fico’s Smer party, Ján Slota’s Slovak National Party (SNS) and Vladimír Mečiar’s Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) – is entering the new year with record popularity among voters.
FM quits for plum UN job
JÁN Kubiš resigned as Slovakia’s minister of foreign affairs on December 17 in order to accept a new position as executive secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), headquartered in Geneva.
Slovak–Hungarian relations thawing slower than hoped
POLITICAL observers say that Slovak-Hungarian relations have not improved despite recent meetings between the countries’ presidents and prime ministers and the passage of an amendment sponsored by the Hungarian Coalition Party (SMK).
Pezinok loses final bid to halt waste dump
THE REGIONAL Court in Bratislava has ruled against a group of residents in Pezinok, a nearby wine-growing town, who had sued to stop the construction of a waste dump near the town’s historical centre.
Janušek emerges from vote with job intact
MINISTER of Construction and Regional Development Marián Janušek, a nominee of the Slovak National Party (SNS), survived a no-confidence vote against him held in parliament on December 9.
Ministry tender linked to SNS allies
ANOTHER minister in the Robert Fico government is facing accusations of awarding state contracts to companies with ties to the ruling coalition. Marián Janušek, a Slovak National Party (SNS) nominee who heads the Construction and Regional Development Ministry, has been criticised for granting a €98 million (Sk2.95 billion) contract to two firms, Avocat and Zamedia, which have links to SNS chairman Ján Slota.
No–confidence vote fails as lottery legal saga deepens
FINANCE Minister Ján Počiatek survived a no-confidence vote held in the small hours between December 2 and 3. The opposition initiated the vote because of Počiatek’s role as finance minister in the legal dispute between Tipos, the state lottery company, and Športka, which sued Tipos in 2000 for stealing its know-how.
State takes unprecedented step to speed construction
ON NOVEMBER 26, parliament passed the Act on Expedited Highway Construction, a controversial revision to last year’s Highway Construction Act, which allows the state to begin building highways on land before expropriation is complete.
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- Bratislava satellite town breaks records and keeps expanding
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- News digest: Bear suspected of killing man in central Slovakia
- Foot-and-mouth outbreak hits major Slovak cattle farm near Austrian and Czech borders Photo
- Trading McDonald’s for the front lines
- News digest: Bear suspected of killing man in central Slovakia
- Bratislava satellite town breaks records and keeps expanding
- From Mexico to Slovakia – finding a new life Audio
- France and Slovakia: Believing, loving, and working together
- In Bratislava, spring begins with 90 wines and a stroll through hidden cellars Photo
- A paper that wasn’t supposed to last
- Foot-and-mouth outbreak hits major Slovak cattle farm near Austrian and Czech borders Photo
- Slovak dad drops everything for son’s NHL debut — even a flight
- The Slovak-American who wants the world to witness the quality of Slovak wines
- France and Slovakia: Believing, loving, and working together
- Last Week: As disease spreads, Fico no longer insists on a “different opinion”
- Trading McDonald’s for the front lines
- News digest: Bear suspected of killing man in central Slovakia
- News digest: Emergency, crying cows, secret burials and Brussels plots
- Slovak dad drops everything for son’s NHL debut — even a flight
- Foot-and-mouth outbreak hits major Slovak cattle farm near Austrian and Czech borders Photo
- The Slovak-American who wants the world to witness the quality of Slovak wines
- France and Slovakia: Believing, loving, and working together
- Then … Now
- Dialects: can west understand east?
- Last Week: As disease spreads, Fico no longer insists on a “different opinion”
- This protest was for Gaza—then it turned into a showdown with a Marxist MEP and a far-right influencer
- Benny Golson played here. This year, Jazz Prešov will have to scale back.
- Bratislava built under 4 km of cycle paths last year, leaving cyclists disappointed
- Rare footage brings Slovakia’s literary giant back to life Video
- How Slovakia’s president funded his campaign behind a wall of secrecy
- A deadly contagion has arrived in Slovakia: 30 years of stories from Slovakia
- A paper that wasn’t supposed to last
- News digest: Bear suspected of killing man in central Slovakia
- Trading McDonald’s for the front lines More articles ›
