(source: SME.sk / Hej,ty)
Good evening. Here is the Thursday, December 29 edition of Today in Slovakia - the main news of the day in less than five minutes.
Poles from Zakopane preparing for a nightmare
(source: Facebook/Sylwester Zakopane)
Zakopane, a popular tourist resort on the Polish side of the Tatras, is finishing off preparations before thousands of misbehaving tourists flock to the town's largest park, Równia Krupowa, to celebrate New Year's Eve at a big concert.
Gazeta Wyborcza reports that local people are fed up with this wild celebration, which leaves piles of garbage behind and ignores wildlife in the national park. In addition, entrepreneurs try to secure their businesses with chipboards, and local people prefer staying at home on the last day of year.
The Polish daily notes that the Poles from Zakopane can only dream of a calmer and more civilised New Year's Eve celebration, giving the celebration on the Slovak side of the Tatras, in Tatranská Lomnica and Liptovský Mikuláš, as an example.
Related: Here is how Bratislava will welcome 2023, and what's on in the capital city on December 31.
Skiing: Sixty-five of 95 Slovak ski resorts were open on Thursday.
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FEATURE STORY FOR THURSDAY
Innovation-driven Slovakia remains a dream
Production of Kia cars near Žilina, Slovakia (source: Courtesy of Kia Motors)
The bumpy yet successful path of reforms Slovakia took in the late 1990s and early 2000s has been praised, but to fully harness its potential, Slovakia now needs another wave of economic reforms.
In the story above, you can find links to other stories marking 30 years of the country's independence, which Slovakia celebrates on January 1.
IN OTHER NEWS:
MEP Miroslav Číž (Smer) has died, aged 68, the Smer party said. He was a member of the Committee on International Trade. The MEP also belonged with the Delegation to the EU-Russia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee. He was one of Slovakia's 14 MEPs.
The Russian embassy is ignoring the new name of the street on which it is located in Bratislava's Old Town. Instead of Boris Nemtsov Street, the embassy continues to use Godrova Street. In Devín, a Bratislava borough, people live on Kremeľská (Kremlin) Street, the Sme daily writes.
A road in Tatranská Javorina, on the Slovak-Polish border, is covered with snow on December 16, while no snow is seen on the Polish side. The picture has sparked some controversy on Facebook. The Korzár daily explains that Poland has a different terrain, and the country uses a different type of road salt. (source: Dušan Kolcun )
The new and more complicated way of calculating the tax bonus, a tax benefit intended for a taxpayer who takes care of a dependent child, has been named the bureaucratic nonsense of 2022 in a poll organised by the Association of Young Entrepreneurs. The obligation to register a birth number into the business register came second. In total, 57 absurdities were submitted to the poll.
The increase in the price of heat for households in blocks of flats using gas from heating plants should not exceed €20 per MWh. The government approved the proposal on Thursday. Initially, it was supposed to be 15 per cent.
The EU consumption of natural gas has dropped by 20.1 per cent from August to November 2022, compared with the average gas consumption for the same months between 2017 and 2021. Natural gas consumption increased in Malta and Slovakia (+2.6 per cent). The Economy Ministry claims Eurostat used the wrong data, but experts disagree and point to the country's inability to save energy, Index magazine reports. (source: Eurostat)
Russia's government official Dmitry Medvedev tweeted his absurd predictions for 2023, most of which suggest the collapse of the West as a result of various conflicts. Medvedev mentioned that Slovakia would become a satellite to the Fourth Reich (Germany).
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P.S. If you have suggestions on how this news overview can be improved, you can reach us at editorial@spectator.sk.
