Good evening. Here is the Monday, July 3 edition of Today in Slovakia - the main news of the day in less than five minutes.
Central Bank governor on trial
Peter Kažimír. (source: TASR)
On Monday, the trial of Slovak Central Bank (NBS) governor and ex-finance minister Peter Kažimír started at the Specialised Criminal Court in Pezinok. He has been accused of bribery.
On Monday morning, he pleaded not guilty.
The governor denies paying former Financial Administration head František Imrecze almost €50,000 when the former served as finance minister in the Smer party-led government coalition in 2016. Imrecze, who himself has been convicted of bribery, but is a co-operating defendant in this case, claims the opposite.
In April, Kažimír was found guilty and ordered to pay a fine of €100,000 and given a suspended prison sentence of two years.
As both the prosecutor and the ex-minister appealed against the verdict, a main trial is now being held.
The trial is expected to run until mid-September.
Kažimír himself has been charged before, but the charges against him were scrapped, using the controversial Article 363.
Read more about Peter Kažimír:
Central bank governor guilty of corruption, judge says.
The central bank boss’s guilty verdict gives Smer another martyr.
Slovakia's central bank governor again faces corruption charges.
More stories from The Slovak Spectator website
OPINION: Boris Kollár is in hot water, but unlikely to boil. Domestic violence may harm him more than his political failures.
HEALTH CARE: Hundreds of pediatricians resign from emergency service, citing excessive workload among other things.
HIGHER EDUCATION: EU to fund university consortia in Slovakia, but their success is not assured.
REAL ESTATE: Where to buy apartments worth investing in. In some places, the value of real estate increased by 50 percent in two years.
AUTOMOTIVE: Schaeffler opens R&D centre in Slovakia with new job opportunities for dozens.
If you like what we are doing and want to support good journalism, buy our online subscription with no ads and a print copy of The Slovak Spectator sent to your home in Slovakia. Thank you.
FEATURE STORY FOR MONDAY
Literary scholar: Sci-fi allows civilisations to think long-term
The wildfires in Canada have worsened the quality of air in the US. (source: TASR)
For a long time, people have tended to belittle or disregard the literary value of the genre. But that is slowly beginning to change, even in academia. Johannes Kaminski, based at the Institute of World Literature at the Slovak Academy of Sciences, studies how climate change is depicted in national literatures and what is the response.
"Sci-fi allows us to think about solutions in a way that is terrifying and maybe quite appropriate. Perhaps it matches reality more than ordinary fiction or realist literature," he says in an interview.
SONG/FILM/EVENT/WHATEVER FOR (WHICH DAY/TOMORROW)
Authors' reading month: Norway edition is here
Eliza Reid reads from her debut book at a July 15 event during the 2022 Authors' Reading Month in Bratislava. (source: Dominika Bolgáčová)
The festival is a series of daily events focusing on the national literature of the hosting country as well as another one, selected to be the ‘Guest of Honour’. This year it is Norway.
In addition to Norwegian crime books, attendees will be able to meet Instagram poet Alexander Fallo, Åsne Seierstad, who wrote a book on the worst mass murderer in the history of Norway, and many others. For more information click here (in English).
In other news
A total of 24 political parties and one coalition wants to vie for seats in parliament in the September snap election, the Interior Ministry reported on Monday after the deadline for submitting election slates expired on Sunday. The only coalition consists of the OĽaNO, Kresťanská Únia (Christian Union) and Za Ľudí parties.
At the end of June, the state budget had a deficit of €2.796 billion in the first half of 2023, an increase of €1.251 billion or 81 percent year-on-year, the Finance Ministry reported on Monday.
Slovakia has a strong interest in normal, peaceful relations with Hungary, with a positive agenda directed towards the future and not the past, said Slovak Foreign Affairs Minister Miroslav Wlachovsky after meeting his Hungarian counterpart Peter Szijjarto in Budapest on Monday. Wlachovsky stressed that Slovakia would like to see Sweden as a NATO member at the alliance summit in Vilnius and hopes that Hungary will ratify its accession as soon as possible.
A total of €50 million from EU funds will be spent to support Roma patrols in villages, Prime Minister Ľudovít Ódor and Investment Minister Peter Balík announced. According to Ódor, Roma patrols effectively maintain public order and are respected in villages.
After extinguishing a fire that broke out at a grammar school in Bratislava last Friday night, firefighters found a dead body in the building. According to media, the victim was a student who died of smoke inhalation. The fire was set intentionally. The circumstances are under investigation.
WEATHER FOR TUESDAY:
From partly cloudy to overcast and occasionally showers or storms. Daily temperatures between 23 °C to 30 °C expected. Light breeze. (SHMÚ)
Thank you for subscribing and reading. It means a lot to us.
P.S. If you have suggestions on how our news overview can be improved, you can reach us at editorial@spectator.sk.
Follow The Slovak Spectator on Facebook, Instagram (@slovakspectator) and Twitter (@slovakspectator).
