Good evening. Here is theThursday, November 16 edition of Today in Slovakia - the main news of the day in less than five minutes.
Friday, November 17, is a public holiday in Slovakia. Slovakia will commemorate the Velvet Revolution, which brought an end to the communist regime.
Communist symphatisers remain unpunished
Smer MP Ľuboš Blaha. (source: TASR)
Although 34 years have passed since the student demonstrations against the communist regime, while the manifestations of its sympathisers remain unpunished.
Since 1996, when then prime minister Vladimír Mečiar's coalition approved the Law on the Immorality and Illegality of the Communist Regime, the courts have not issued a single decision finding the communist propagandists guilty.
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SLOVAK MATTERS
Englovak? Slovlish? English in Slovak
Fortunately everyone understands the word party. (source: Image by Freepik)
Slovak has one big boogieman of a reality: six cases, singular and plural, with twelve declensions, a total of 144 possible endings. If that's not enough to scare off beginners, there's this frightening fact: strč prst skrz krk (stick your finger down your throat) is a complete, grammatically sound and vowel-less sentence. Can you say it (and repeat it as fast as possible)?
EVENT (s) FOR FREE
IN BRATISLAVA
On November 17, a live concert will be held in Bratislava's Primaciálne Square. The Ukrainian band, electro-folk phenomenon Go_A will perform on the stage.
Learn more about two more free events in the city.
In other news
If Speaker of Parliament Peter Pellegrini (Hlas) fulfils his pre-election promises, Slovensko leader Igor Matovič says he will give up his parliamentary seat. Pellegrini should pay the 13th pension of €640 to all orphans, widows, people with disabilities and pensioners before Christmas, and also not take the parental pension of €315 million from pensioners, Matovič has said.
The European Commission decided to open an infringement procedure by sending a letter of formal notice to Slovakia for failing to correctly apply the interoperability requirements of Directive 2008/57/EC; the document establishes a framework for ensuring interoperability between railways in the EU through harmonising technical requirements and establishing a process for their verification. The Commission also identified the incorrect transposition of the fourth and fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directives, which is why the EC has opened another infringement procedure.
The media will have limited opportunities to record or broadcast live inside the parliament following an incident between Slovensko MP Igor Matovič and Smer MP Ján Mažgút. Matovič disrupted Mažgút's appearance on TV earlier in the week. Matovič claims that Speaker Peter Pellegrini, who announced the temporary ban, is bullying journalists and others.
Dangerous content is being spread through the WhatsApp platform, the National Security Office announced. The group "Add as many people as possible" makes pornographic content and explicit videos of murders or suicides available, mainly to Slovak and Czech primary school students.
The Union of Slovak Road Hauliers (UNAS) blocked the Vyšné Nemecké - Uzhgorod border crossing for one hour on Thursday. Ukrainian lorry drivers use the crossing after Poland shut down its border crossings with Ukraine for lorries. UNAS has called on the European Commission to fix the problem with suspended permits for Ukrainian lorries entering the EU. UNAS is prepared to block all the Slovak-Ukrainian crossings open to lorries, and for a longer period of time.
Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová laid flowers and lit a candle at the Velvet Revolution Monument on Národní Street in Prague on Thursday, November 16, 2023. (source: TASR)
WEATHER FOR FRIDAY: Thick cloud cover will rule the day. Rain or sleet can be expected in most places. The daytime temperature will range from 2°C to 10°C. It will be a windy day. Wind, snowdrifts and ground ice warnings have been issued for Friday and Saturday in a number of Slovak regions. Temperatures will drop at the weekend, clouds and rain (or sleet) will not go anywhere. Snow is expected in the north of Slovakia. (SHMÚ)
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