Good evening. Here is the Thursday, November 14 edition of Today in Slovakia - the main news of the day in less than five minutes.
Polish and Slovak premiers’ secret meeting in the Tatras
Slovak PM Robert Fico (l) and Polish PM Donald Tusk (r) sit at a table in a château in Tatranská Javorina, Slovakia, on November 14, 2024. (source: Government Office of the Slovak Republic)
Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer), who has not officially visited Poland—a key player in Central Europe—since assuming office in October 2023, invited his Polish counterpart, Donald Tusk, to an unusual setting for informal talks: the Tatra Mountains, a range shared by Slovakia and Poland.
Fico hosted the Polish prime minister at a state-owned château in Tatranská Javorina, a village near the Slovak-Polish border. The meeting, conducted with little fanfare, was ‘planned’ yet notably secretive, with the public only learning of it after its conclusion, through a few photographs and a brief press release.
The statement revealed that the meeting lasted three hours, during which the two leaders discussed transport infrastructure projects, the ongoing situation in Ukraine—which Fico has also yet to visit—and the upcoming Polish presidency of the European Union.
In a statement following Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential race, Tusk expressed intentions to engage with European leaders on defence spending and the war in Ukraine. Meanwhile, Fico has given interviews to state-run media in Russia and China, where he has openly criticised the West’s role in Russia’s war in Ukraine, Slovakia’s eastern neighbour.
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FEATURE STORY
“I feel fortunate to be a female in a lineage of strong Slovak women.”
Family. (source: Angela Meady)
American Angela Meady shares the story of her Slovak roots with The Slovak Spectator and reflects on her memories of her grandparents. “At times in my life when things feel daunting or too challenging, I often think about my grandmother and great-grandmother, who did not accept barriers to their goals and simply out-thought and out-manoeuvred the odds to achieve what they wanted,” she writes, also sharing a Slovak recipe.
FREE EVENTS IN BRATISLAVA
Central European Forum
The Old Market Hall in Bratislava is one of the venues where the Central European Forum will take place over the weekend. (source: SME ARCHIVE - VLADIMÍR ŠIMÍČEK)
Are you seeking answers to the question of what is happening around us today? If so, you may find them at the forum this weekend. Polish director Agnieszka Holland, American historian Anne Applebaum, French philosopher Didier Eribon, British historian Timothy Garton Ash and many others have accepted invitations to join the discussions.
IN OTHER NEWS
Milan Škriniar and Dávid Hancko could be on their way to Juventus, according to Gazzetta dello Sport. Škriniar, currently with Paris St. Germain, is reportedly not being fully utilised by the French club, while Hancko has been a standout at Feyenoord in the Dutch Eredivisie. The potential move would see two of Slovakia’s top footballers join forces in Turin.
On Thursday, the police inspectorate officers detained a traffic police officer in Bratislava as he accepted a €6,000 bribe.
If parliamentary elections were held in early November, the Progressive Slovakia (PS) movement would emerge victorious, securing 25.1 percent of the vote, according to a survey by NMS Market Research Slovakia for the daily Sme. Smer, currently the strongest party in parliament, attracted 19.1 percent support in the poll. The survey was conducted between November 7 and November 11; data collection concluded on the day Ivan Korčok, the unsuccessful presidential candidate, announced his intention to join PS. The Hlas party ranked third, garnering 10.8 percent support. Three additional parties would clear the parliamentary threshold: far-right Republika, with 8.7 percent of the vote, followed by the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) and Freedom and Solidarity (SaS).
Slovenské Elektrárne, the largest electricity producer in Slovakia, will continue sourcing nuclear fuel from Russia’s TVEL until 2030. The current contract, initially set to end in 2026, includes an option for extension through 2030. Slovenské Elektrárne, co-owned by EPH, Enel, and the Slovak government, has also signed supply agreements with the American firm Westinghouse and France’s Framatome. The first deliveries from Framatome are expected in 2027. (Denník N)
The leader of the far-right coalition party SNS, Andrej Danko, announced that the coalition will consider introducing an imperative parliamentary mandate in 2025. In practice, this would mean that if an MP were to break ranks with the party on whose ticket they entered parliament and leave its parliamentary caucus, they would lose their seat. However, the Constitutional Court has previously ruled that the mandate belongs to the elected MP, not the party. (Denník N)
Ex-president Andrej Kiska will turn to the courts over termination of life-long salary payments to him. The court should decide whether or not he is eligible for a life-long salary, Kiska has posted on a social network, adding that this is the matter of principle for him. The President’s Office announced earlier on Thursday that it has terminated life-long salary payments to Kiska as of November. It has done so based on new legislation which stipulates that former heads of state forfeit their claim to such payments if found guilty of willful crimes. In October, Prešov Regional Court handed down to Kiska a suspended sentence of one year with two years of probation for tax fraud. (TASR)
Slovak tennis players have reached the quarter-finals of the Billie Jean King Cup final tournament, where they will face Australia on Sunday at 10:00. In the first-round match in Spain, they defeated the favoured USA team 2-1. (source: Manu Fernandez)
WEATHER FOR FRIDAY: Friday will bring cloudy to overcast weather, with occasional fog in some areas. Light showers may occur in isolated spots, and there is still a risk of ice formation, particularly in the morning. The highest daytime temperatures will range from 5°C to 10°C. (SHMÚ)
NOVEMBER 15 NAME DAY IN SLOVAKIA: Leopold.
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