(source: TASR)
Welcome to your weekly commentary and overview of news from Slovakia. The election campaign is on: what will it bring? Expulsions of Russian diplomats helped, at least for a while. Slovakia has a new official ethnic minority.
If you have a suggestion on how to make this overview better, let me know at michaela.terenzani@spectator.sk.
It’s campaigning time
Politicians who aspire to lead the country will soon start making the rounds of summer festivals, swimming pools, and outdoor halušky- and goulash-cooking competitions. They have been bracing for the heat of a political summer since learning that, for the first time in 20 years, Slovakia’s parliamentary elections will take place in September.
It’s official, what’s next?
Last Friday, Speaker of Parliament Boris Kollár formally announced the election date for September 30, 2023. The announcement itself has a number of practical implications – for instance, it allows Slovak citizens living abroad to now register to vote by mail. Registration is available on the Interior Ministry’s website and will remain open until August 9 (the last day it can be done). The Slovak Spectator will bring more details about voting from abroad in the coming days.
Perhaps the most important implication of the announcement for parties is the definitive setting of spending limits. Based on the law, each party running in the election is allowed to spend no more than €3 million on campaigning up to the end of the campaign, which is officially on September 28 (when the 48-hour pre-election moratorium starts). All expenses from 180 days before the day when the elections were announced also count towards the spending limit – which means parties need to include everything they have spent on political promotion since December 10.
