1. Last days of RTVS, the parliament has approved the abolition of RTVS and creation of STVR. 2. Newly inaugurated president Peter Pellegrini at informal negotiations in Brussels; his first official visit will be to the Czech Republic 3. Slovakia supports the communique of the peace summit in Switzerland.
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As of July 1, RTVS will be abolished and replaced by Slovak Television and Radio. The parliament has approved the Act on STVR. Seventy-eight MPs voted in favour of the law, the opposition MPs has left the Parliament prior to the vote. In the afternoon, a couple of dozen employees protested against the approval of the law in front of the parliament.
As a result of the approval of the Act, the current management will have to end. For the first three months, the institution will not have a director so it will be led by an interim manager. The new management is expected to be appointed by autumn.
The new STVR bodies will consist of the council and the general director. The council will have nine members as before, but the way that it will be constituted is changing. The culture minister will nominate four members of the council based on a selection procedure, while the remaining five will be elected by Parliament.
The opposition considers the law as purpose-built with the aim to replace the current management and introduce political control over the broadcaster. Over the last couple of months, there were protests against the step by the opposition, civic society, employees and it was criticized by the European Broadcasting union and Commissioner for Human Rights of Council of Europe Michael O’Flaherty, among others. The opposition Progressive Slovakia party has announced that it will challenge the bill in the Constitutional Court.
At the beginning of the week, Slovak President Peter Pellegrini attended the informal meeting in Brussels. Pellegrini was sworn into his office last weekend, standing in for Slovak PM Robert Fico who is recovering after the assassination attempt in May. Pellegrini’s priority, which he coordinated with Prime Minister Fico, was to assert the best possible position for Slovak European Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič during the negotiations. For now, the negotiations about top EU positions were postponed until next week.
On Tuesday, President Peter Pellegrini received Czech Foreign Affairs Minister Jan Lipavský, with the two of them discussing options for deepening bilateral cooperation between Bratislava and Prague. Next week, he is going on his first official state visit to the Czech Republic, as is the tradition between the two countries.
Slovakia has joined the 80 countries that supported the final communique of the peace summit on Ukraine in Switzerland last Sunday. According to Foreign Minister Juraj Blanár, Slovakia is ready to continue to contribute to the peace efforts, and he stressed promoting its national interests.
Mark Rutte will be the next secretary general of NATO. Slovakia was one of the countries to support the candidacy of outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte for the post of NATO Secretary General. According to Slovak president Peter Pellegrini, in return for this support, Slovakia wants help from the Netherlands in securing its air defence.
A legislative package, the so-called Lex Assassination will be deliberated on by Parliament in a fast-track procedure. The bill was drafted in the wake of the shooting of PM Robert Fico and is designed to usher in more stringent security measures and restrict public protests, for instance, banning any protests in the vicinity of residences of politicians, the building of the government or the constitutional court. According to the draft law, the President, the Parliament Chairperson and the Prime Minister should be assigned official state residences whereas Parliament Chairpersons and Prime Ministers who spent two full terms in office will receive a lifelong salary from the state. The draft law is criticised by the opposition, attorney general, ombudsman and even local governments. The coalition has admitted that some modifications are still to be made.
Hundreds of people converged on the SNP Square in Bratislava on Tuesday in a protest march for freedom and democracy, organised by a platform called Open Culture!, Platform for Democracy, Climate Coalition, Peace for Ukraine civic association as well as organisers of civic protests from twenty Slovak towns.
There was no pandemic, stated Peter Kotlár, the Government Plenipotentiary for the review of the process of governance and resource management during the COVID-19 pandemic. He insists on distancing from the new international health regulations. The opposition has again rejected his actions and positions. KDH called on the government to remove Kotlár from his post.
Scientists and experts who were part of the Science Helps COVID-19 initiative during the pandemic have organised a petition. They call on the government to nominate a qualified expert in the field of epidemiology and public health for the negotiations with the WHO.
Slovak national party chairman Andrej Danko published a series of photographs and a video from the football stadium in Frankfurt. The Slovak national team played a match against Belgium in the European championship. A government special was also in the German city at the time, the SME daily pointed out. Some other politicians attended as well. According to the spokesperson of the Interior Ministry, Slovak politicians were invited by the Slovak Football Federation and it was their official programme.
The Slovak national railway carrier has introduced new train coupes exclusively for women in reaction to complaints from women who were harassed by men on trains. There are separate sections for women in most express trains traveling from Bratislava to Košice and back. In addition to women's coupes, the railway carrier also introduced, for example, a quiet zone in trains.
