Good evening. Here is the Tuesday, June 25 edition of Today in Slovakia - the main news of the day in less than five minutes.
First Roma school to open in Slovakia
Parents and children wait outside the school building at the beginning of the new 2016-2017 school year in the Roma settlement in the village of Rakúsy, Kežmarok district, on September 5, 2016. (source: TASR)
In the village of Rakúsy near Kežmarok, eastern Slovakia, a pilot Roma school will open in the coming years. In Slovakia, there are few schools teaching the Roma language, and none where Roma is the language of instruction.
"I consider it particularly important to create a space for the education of children from ethnic minorities in their mother tongue, including Roma children," said Education Minister Tomáš Drucker (Hlas).
The Education Ministry, the village of Rakúsy, the University of Prešov, and the Association of Schools Teaching the Roma Language have signed a memorandum of cooperation for the establishment of the school.
According to data from the Atlas of Roma Communities from 2019, there are about 450,000 inhabitants of Roma origin living in Slovakia, and 60 percent of them primarily use the Roma language at home.
MORE STORIES FROM THE SLOVAK SPECTATOR WEBSITE
Business: A Slovak firm made clothes for German police officers and Olympians. Today, it is applying for bankruptcy.
Opinion: Will President Peter Pellegrini be Prince Svätopluk's successor?
Travel: Under the stars, by "Golden Beaches" Lake. Bratislava's official campsite is officially open.
Restaurant: Our food critic, Mark Taylor, has reviewed an Italian ristorante in the centre of Bratislava. He never goes out for Italian food. After the visit, did he have a change of heart?
Business: Slovak Telekom and Tesco were among those who took home the Via Bona Slovakia Award on Tuesday night.
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FEATURE STORY
The only thing that makes her stay in Bratislava is the feeling of being helpful
Yelyzaveta ‘Liza’ Derevynska. (source: SME - Marko Erd)
Ukrainian woman Yelyzaveta 'Liza' Derevynska arrived in Slovakia after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, leaving her parents behind in her native Kyiv. "The war took away the feeling of Kyiv being my home," she says, adding that people, including her parents, have also changed. In Bratislava, she runs a popular Telegram profile at the League for Human Rights.
WHAT TO DO ON SATURDAY
Japanese Natsumatsuri
The board game Go. (source: Japanese embassy in Slovakia)
On Saturday, June 29, you can can stop by at a gazebo on Hviezdoslavovo Námestie square in Bratislava. Festival goers will learn how to make sushi, travel to Gifu, try to play Go and Shogi, watch martial arts, explore Japanese fashion, and more. The festival, which will be free, will start at 14:00 and run until 18:00.
IN OTHER NEWS
Half of the Slovak population disagrees with LGBT+ couples having the same rights as heterosexuals, shows the latest NMS Market Research Slovakia poll. Forty-five percent of respondents are against the equal rights of LGBT+ couples, while 37 percent are in favour. Half the population also believes that Slovakia is not a good place for LGBT+ people to live in.
The carrier FlixBus has said that the bus connection to the Croatian island of Krk operates daily during the summer season. A direct bus route to the island starts in Warsaw, Poland, and departs from Bratislava at 22:00.
The Interior Ministry's police inspectorate has suspended criminal proceedings in the well-known case of leaked wiretaps capturing the conversations of a group of National Crime Agency (NAKA) officers known as the Čurillas (named after one of the officers, ed.). The ruling party Smer had exploited the manipulated wiretaps, which feature the NAKA officers investigating Smer's scandals, before last year's elections. Meanwhile, the inspectorate proposed filing charges against the officers with a court in May 2024, suspecting them of the abuse of power by a public official. For suspending these officers, who hold the status of whistleblowers, the Interior Ministry has been fined €90,000 by the Office for the Protection of Whistleblowers.
As of June 11 this year, 73 people have applied for asylum, the Interior Ministry said. The most frequent applicants were Ukrainians, Afghans, and Pakistanis. In the past year, 416 people applied for asylum, with the highest number of applications coming from Turks, Bangladeshis, and Afghans.
On Tuesday, the Council of the EU adopted a decision to extend temporary protection for Ukrainian refugees until March 4, 2026. As of May 5, 2024, nearly 143,300 Ukrainians applied for temporary protection in Slovakia.
Training of the Slovak national football team for the UEFA European Championship in the German city of Mainz on Tuesday, June 25, 2024. Slovak footballers will play their third group stage match in Group E against Romania in Frankfurt am Main on Wednesday, June 26. (source: TASR)
WEATHER FOR WEDNESDAY: Expect partly cloudy to cloudy skies, with occasional overcast conditions throughout the day. Overnight, there will be isolated showers, and during the day, scattered showers and thunderstorms, some potentially intense. The weather will be humid, with daytime temperatures ranging from 24°C to 31°C. Winds will be light to moderate, but may strengthen during thunderstorms. Thunderstorm warnings will be in effect for most parts of Slovakia, except for the Prešov area and the far east. (SHMÚ)
JUNE 26 NAME'S DAY IN SLOVAKIA: Adriána.
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