(source: SME.sk / Hej,ty)
Good evening. Here is the Thursday, December 13 edition of Today in Slovakia - the main news of the day in less than five minutes.
Heger survives. For now
Eduard Heger. (source: SITA)
The ruling coalition has two more days to avert the fall of Eduard Heger's government.
The no-confidence vote, scheduled for Tuesday morning, was postponed until Thursday so that the government could gain room for negotiations on when to hold snap elections following the potential ouster of PM Heger.
The situation had been tense in the days running up to the vote, as unaffiliated MPs gradually revealed their decisions on how they would vote on Heger's government.
More stories on Spectator.sk
HEALTH: Chief hygienist's recommendations for the flu season.
RESPIRATORY DISEASES: Over 80 schools have cancelled classes due to illness.
If you like what we are doing and want to support good journalism, buy our online subscription. Thank you.
Feature story for today
The unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine has caused both widespread destruction and hundreds of thousands of people to leave the country. As of November, around 100,000 have been registered in Slovakia.
A new Globsec poll surveyed the public opinion of V4 citizens towards the Ukrainian refugees in their country, including Slovakia.
With only 42 percent of people with a positive perception of Ukrainian refugees, Slovakia is far behind other V4 countries. See the other results of the poll by following this link.
Picture of the day
An aquarium in the zoo in the Bojnice, Trenčín region. Due to the energy crisis, the zoo had to make changes in order to save money. Since the comfort of exotic animals could not be changed, they proceeded with an inner campaign that includes closed toilets in some sections.
(source: TASR)
In other news
At night, temperatures will drop to minus 20 degrees Celsius in northern, central, and certain parts of eastern Slovakia, according to the Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute. Meteorologists have issued a second level warning for the districts of Námestovo, Dolný Kubín, Tvrdošín, Ružomberok, Liptovský Mikuláš, Brezno, Poprad, Kežmarok, Stará Ľubovňa, Levoča, Spišská Nová Ves and Rožňava. The warning will be in effect from midnight to Wednesday 7:00 AM.
On Tuesday, the Constitutional Court declared that parts of Finance Minister Igor Matovič's pro-family package are unconstitutional. One of the parts deemed as such was the fast-track procedure the package was passed in. The package was approved by the parliament in June after President Zuzana Čaputová's veto. According to her, the ruling means strengthening the rule of law, and will set boundaries for a ruling majority. Find out more about the President's decision behind the veto here.
Slovakia is supposed to have three new protected areas. These will include the Homoľa nature reserve in the Brezno district, and two protected areas, Tisovský Karst in the regions of Spiš, then Gemer and Pramenná oblasť Rimavy in the Rimavská Sobota district.
In recent days, between 10 to 50 centimetres of snow has fallen in the higher elevations of the Western, High and Low Tatras. In these mountains, a second-level avalanche warning out of a five-part scale is in effect. A first-level avalanche warning applies in other areas, according to the Mountain Rescue Service.
Compared to previous years, tourism in Bratislava did well in 2022. In the first ten months of the year, more foreign tourists have spent a night in the capital than the entire past two years combined. In September, the capital launched an on-line campaign called 72-Hour City (available in Slovak, English and German), where visitors can create a three-day plan to explore top places in Bratislava.
If you have suggestions on how this news overview can be improved, you can reach us at editorial@spectator.sk.
