The beginning of the new school year marked with bomb threats, rumoured acquisition pf Pegasus by the Slovak Intelligence denied and part of the culture community declares a strike alert while police officers sign a petition asking for better working conditions.
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Slovakia’s governing coalition has still not agreed on who will be speaker of parliament. There was an offer between Hlas and SNS to exchange posts, but it was unsuccessful. The coalition parties have only informed they have agreed on next steps they have agreed on the programme of the first parliamentary session after the summer break on Tuesday.
On Monday, the new school year has begun. According to the Education Minister, the new academic year will be marked by a "gentle revolution in education“, referring to reforms of the curriculum. But the new school year was marked by massive email threat attacks aimed at schools, leading to evacuations. The attacks were reported three days in a row, similar attacks were reported in the Czech Republic. The police is informed they are taking necessary measures in cooperation with the schools concerned, adding that they are in close contact with other security forces and foreign partners. If caught, the perpetrator could spend up to 25 years in prison or even receive a life sentence.
A group of representatives of the cultural sector and Otvorená Kultúra - the Open Culture Platform - have declared a strike alert. The reason for this is the current state of the sector under the leadership and stept of Culture Minister Martina Šimkovičová, political interference in culture and the working and economic conditions of cultural workers. The Culture Ministry responded they respect the constitutional right of those who joined the strike alert but asked the cultural community to respect the results of the democratic elections. There will be different phases of the strike alert, including protests, if the conditions are not met.
Police officers are also calling for better financial and working conditions, they delivered a petition signed by 800 police officers to the Interior Minister. The petition's initiator pointed out that some 1,100 police officers recently handed in their notice and that there is nobody to replace them. The minister said that he has been communicating with police officers on their requirements and does not see a threat of collapse in the Police Corps.
A group of coalition lawmakers led by Smer-SD MP Tibor Gašpar filed a proposal to oust the leader of the biggest opposition party Progresívne Slovensko Michal Šimečka from the post of the House Vice-chair. The special session of the House needs to be convened within seven days from the motion being filed. Smer and SNS support the motion, the opinion of the coalition's Hlas-SD party is not clear.
The opposition party Progesívne Slovensko is calling for the dismissal of Health Minister Zuzana Dolinková (Hlas-SD), criticising her for indebtment and lack of needed reforms, among other things. Dolinková considers such proposal as political theatre that does not solve anything.
The Slovak daily Denník N has reported that that the Slovak secret service may have access to the Pegasus spyware system, citing 4 sources with links to the security community. The Slovak Intelligence Service has denied this. According to the Defence Minister, the acquisition as well as the operation of Pegasus would be too expensive and, under the current legislation, illegal in Slovakia. Part of the opposition wants to discuss the reported acquisitian of Pegasus in the parliamentary committee that controls the intelligence service, but it has no chairman at the moment. The head of the Slovak Intelligence has invited the members of the committee to an informal meeting.
A court has found former special prosecutor Dušan Kováčik guilty in another bribe case, but refrained from imposing an aggregate sentence. According to the prosecution, he accepted €50,000 in exchange for blocking prosecution in two criminal cases as the head of the special prosecutors office. The verdict is not final. After the first corruption case of the ex-special prosecutor, both Dušan Kováčik and Justice Minister Boris Susko filed an appeal to the Supreme Court. The minister also decided to suspend the prison sentence until the court decides on the appeal. The oppostion asked the minister to explain the reasons for the appeal.
President Peter Pellegrini, Prime Minister Robert Fico and House Vice-chair Peter Žiga signed a joint declaration on a common approach on foreign policy issues. The signatories stressed that Slovakia will be a country that will sovereignly assert its foreign policy positions without questioning its firm membership in the EU and NATO.
Peter Hulenyi has become Slovakia's new Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) in New York. During his 30-year career in Slovak diplomacy, Hulenyi last represented Slovakia as ambassador to Israel.
Cases of COVID-19 continue to rise in Slovakia. Pharmacies have confirmed an increased demand for tests for home use. Although the number of cases is increasing, physicians say there in no need to worry as the new variants of covid have only a mild symptoms in most people. Last week, 160 cases were reported. However, most cases are not being reported. Experts expect the number of cases to continue to rise after the beginning of the school year this Monday.
Slovakia is not prepared to face the threat of a climate crisis due to a lack of resources and crisis management. This was declared by a new initiative of more than 100 experts from different fields. They have prepared a document describing the various societal impacts of the effects of climate change on people. According to them, we need a wide debate across the whole society to address the issue.
Both the number of jobless people and the unemployment rate fell to all-time lows in the second quarter of 2024, with the unemployment rate at 5.2 percent, but the state-budget deficit amounted to €4.65 billion at the end of August 2024. The budgetary performance thus worsened by 24.7 percent year-on-year.
