SLOVAK pensioners might get a one-time reimbursement of Sk1000 (€25) to ease the impact of reforms, Finance Minister Ivan Mikloš announced. Mikloš reported that state budget developments are positive thanks to the strength of the Slovak currency and expected income from taxes, the daily SME wrote.
The Finance Minister is confident that he can find the Sk1.2 billion (€29.6 million) necessary to pay the compensations, which were proposed by the Hungarian Coalition Party (SMK) for those pensioners most hit by economic reforms.
Political analyst Ľuboš Kubín from the Slovak Academy of Sciences told SME that he suspected the compensations, which Mikloš rejected only several weeks ago, are a "signal to discourage voters from participating in the referendum [on early elections]".
Scheduled for April 3, the referendum was initiated by the trade unions and supported by the political opposition in protest of the right-wing cabinet's reforms.
