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WELCOME TO TODAY IN SLOVAKIA — a look back at the news from Wednesday, 14 October.
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In today’s digest:
Turns out Fico’s Moscow critics weren’t just café dwellers.
Fico’s government sets date for talks with Ukraine in Lviv.
10 events to catch in Bratislava.
THE HEAD-SCRATCHER: Opposition MP Alojz Hlina (SaS) took to the floor of parliament on Wednesday evening to explain to coalition MPs what they were about to vote on. He seemed to think some of them needed an explanation.
Hlina said he was speaking on behalf of Mother Nature, which could not defend itself against the ruling coalition. He then turned to mushroom picking, one of the country’s favourite pastimes.
According to Hlina, an amendment to the Nature Protection Act would restrict mushroom picking in areas with the third level of nature protection. Ordinary visitors would need permission from landowners, land managers, or tenants to pick mushrooms there, while those same people could pick them without asking.
At the same time, the amendment would make it easier to remove vineyards and nearby trees, without permission or any obligation to plant replacements. Hlina argued that this would help developers, including former environment minister Tomáš Taraba, who has business interests involving plots of land in Modra, a wine-growing town near Bratislava.
The coalition cut short the parliamentary debate, and coalition MPs passed the amendment in its final, third reading on 14 October.
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Most Slovaks weren’t buying Fico’s Moscow diplomacy
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Robert Fico in Moscow, 9 May 2026. (source: kremlin.ru)
Prime Minister Robert Fico had little patience for critics of his May trip to Moscow. But more than half of those surveyed shared their objections.
A poll by the state-run Infostat agency, first reported by Aktuality.sk, found that 55 percent opposed Fico’s visit for Russia’s May 9 Victory Day commemorations, compared with 35 percent who supported it. And while 34 percent were firmly against the trip, just 14 percent strongly approved.
The results came from an agency under the Statistics Office, headed by Martin Nemky, a former MP for Fico’s Smer party.
Fico was the only government leader from an EU or NATO country to travel to Moscow for the commemorations, despite Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine. He met Vladimir Putin, telling the Russian president it was a “great honour” to be there, and paid tribute to Soviet soldiers killed in the Second World War. He did not attend the military parade.
On his flight home, Fico hit back at critics, insisting that freedom and peace had come to Slovakia from the East.
“Spiritual homeless people sitting in cafés will change nothing about this historical truth,” he said.
Smer voters, at least, were firmly behind him. As many as 81 percent approved of the visit. Most supporters of the far-right SNS, another coalition party, also backed it. But Hlas voters were less convinced, with fewer than half supporting the trip.
Opposition voters took a very different view. Just 5 percent of Progressive Slovakia supporters approved, compared with 22 percent among Demokrati voters.
The strongest opposition was found among university graduates, 63 percent of whom disapproved, and people aged 30 to 49, at 60 percent. By contrast, almost half of respondents over 65 supported Fico’s decision.
The poll also touched on a question that goes beyond Fico’s visit: can people honour the Soviet soldiers who helped defeat Nazi Germany without endorsing the Kremlin’s actions today?
Infostat noted that the Red Army played a decisive role in liberating the country from Nazi occupation. But it also acknowledged the argument that meeting Putin during Russia’s war against Ukraine and seeking closer ties with Moscow cannot be separated from the Kremlin’s current policies.
Asked whether wartime remembrance should be kept separate from Russia’s present-day politics, 61 percent agreed. That included majorities among supporters of every party surveyed, despite their sharp disagreements over Fico’s trip. Some 28 percent disagreed.
Infostat interviewed 1,020 respondents between 1-5 June 2026.
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Also happening
Slovakia expects to spend €7.8 million on additional office space in Bratislava and Brussels as it prepares to chair the Council of the European Union in the first half of 2030. According to a Foreign Ministry proposal, €5 million will go towards premises in Brussels and €2.8 million towards a building in central Bratislava owned by a state-controlled company. The offices will accommodate extra staff needed to organise the six-month presidency, with leases beginning in 2027. The estimated costs do not include accommodation for staff posted to Brussels or future rent increases.
Prime Minister Robert Fico plans to travel to Serbia after the upcoming EU summit to campaign for Aleksandar Vučić ahead of parliamentary elections in late October. Vučić resigned as Serbian president in September to run for prime minister, having already served the maximum number of presidential terms. Fico, who postponed an earlier visit because of illness, said he had promised to support Vučić and intended to keep his word.
An 18-year-old student in Veľké Kapušany, eastern Slovakia, allegedly threatened to kill a teacher while holding a knife. Police have charged him, and prosecutors want to hold him in custody. The incident follows a deadly school attack in Staškov in late September, in which a teacher and a pupil were killed.
The Defence Ministry has spent €165,000 on advertising with eReport, a pro-government news website whose readership has dropped by 83 percent in a year, Aktuality.sk reported. The website, which had just 50,000 visitors in September, is still owned by relatives of the late Fedor Flašík, a political strategist closely linked to the governing Smer party. Defence Minister Robert Kaliňák (Smer) paid the website far more than outlets with much bigger audiences, while another Smer minister, Richard Takáč, spent an additional €90,000 there. The ministry has not explained why.
The armed forces can help supply drinking water to communities facing shortages after the government approved rules for deploying soldiers and military logistics. State authorities, municipalities and regional governments can request assistance when their available water supplies are exhausted. The Defence Ministry said the army and the requesting authority would agree on delivery locations, staffing and other practical arrangements. The measure will remain in place until the end of 2026.
Pope Leo XIV has appointed Marek Forgáč (left), 52, as the new Roman Catholic archbishop of Košice, eastern Slovakia, replacing Bernard Bober (right), who has led the archdiocese since 2010. Forgáč, a Košice native, has served as an auxiliary bishop since 2016 and previously worked as a university chaplain and theology lecturer. Bober, who submitted his resignation to the Pope in November 2025 ahead of his 75th birthday, will continue overseeing the archdiocese until his successor formally takes office in late November. The appointment was announced during a ceremony at St Elizabeth’s Cathedral in Košice. (source: TASR)
Parliament has approved next year’s state budget by just 76 votes, the minimum needed for a majority, with a planned deficit of 4.94 percent of GDP. Two MPs aligned with the government abstained, while the opposition refused to take part in the vote and shouted “shame” and “dealmakers”. Coalition MPs also moved a proposal to restrict voting from abroad ahead of legislation protecting women from violence, while parliament is likely to take a week-long break for local and regional election campaigning despite having more than 200 items still on its agenda.
Slovakia has won a long-running legal dispute over the construction of the Višňové highway tunnel, with an arbitration court in Vienna ordering the former contractor to pay the state around €35 million. The Italian-Slovak consortium Webuild and Dúha had sought some €250 million from Slovakia but was awarded less than €840,000, Transport Minister Jozef Ráž (Smer nom.) said on Wednesday. The dispute dates back to 2019, when the state terminated the original construction contract after years of delays and work problems. Skanska eventually completed the D1 highway section, including the tunnel near Žilina in northern Slovakia, and opened it to traffic in December 2025. (TASR)
The Interior Ministry wants to buy 3,300 assault rifles and 2,100 submachine guns from Italian manufacturer Beretta in a deal worth €21 million, including VAT. The Italian bid was narrowly cheaper than an offer from Czech arms maker Česká zbrojovka, while US manufacturer Colt also submitted a bid. The ministry arrived at the lower Italian price after excluding €400,000 in transport costs from its comparison. The government discussed the proposal on Wednesday but postponed a decision.
Workers in most sectors of Slovakia’s economy saw their wages outpace inflation in August, even as employment continued to fall, according to the Statistics Office. Real wages increased in eight of the ten sectors monitored, with transport and storage recording the biggest rise at 4.6 percent. The same sector, however, lost 4.8 percent of its workforce compared with a year earlier, the sharpest decline recorded. Employment fell in six sectors overall. Construction, accommodation, food services and selected market services hired more workers.
Eva Malá Beluská will become the new head of IKEA in Slovakia, Czechia and Hungary in mid-November, replacing Erika Intisová, who has held the position since September 2025. Malá Beluská joined the furniture retailer in 2004 and has held several management roles since. Intisová is moving to Ingka Group, the world’s largest operator of IKEA stores. (ČTK)
Thursday, 15 October - what to expect
Parliament sits
European Council summit
Transparency ranking of the 100 largest local authorities by TIS
ESET Science Award winners announced
Circular Summit 2026 in Bratislava, focusing on the circular economy and European industry
White Cane Day, raising awareness of people with visual impairments
DATES TO REMEMBER: 24 October – local and regional elections; 4-5 November – V4 presidents’ summit in Trenčín, joined by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen; 5 November - Fico’s government will hold joint talks with its Ukrainian counterpart in Lviv.
Thursday’s weather: 10–18°C, cloudy, isolated showers.
Name day on 15 October: Terézia.
OFF THE CLOCK
THEATRE: Bratislava’s Drama Queer festival runs from 17 to 24 October, with visiting productions from Germany, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Highlights include Berlin’s T-Boy on Grindr, Babin kuk gori from Zagreb and PODROOM from Sarajevo. Tickets.
LITERATURE: Košice-born Erika Harris presents her book The Dilemma of Nationalism in Central and Eastern Europe (in Slovak). BISLA, Johnson Auditorium, Bratislava. 17:00, 15 October.
DO YOU KNOW SLOVAKIA?
Answer to Tuesday’s question: Sklené Teplice.
Today’s question: A traditional Slovak folk song shares its subject with a nationwide beauty contest celebrating its 30th edition this Friday and Saturday in Banská Bystrica. What fruit is at the heart of both?
Check out Thursday’s digest for the answer.
That’s a wrap on day 287 of 2026. Thanks for reading The Slovak Spectator.
If you have suggestions on how our news digest can be improved, you can reach us at editorial@spectator.sk or at peter.dlhopolec@spectator.sk
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