MORNING NEWS HIGHLIGHTS - Monday, September 25, 2023 - 9 a.m.

TASR brings a quick morning overview of the most important events seen in Slovakia on the previous day (Sunday, September 24): BRATISLAVA - The latest statement from Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) chair Richard Sulik, in which Sulik called on other parties who don't fare so well in the polls to withdraw from the election, is quite audacious if not downright arrogant, Laszlo Solymos of 'Blues, Most-Hid' party declared on Sunday. "His statements are also not fair towards the voters. After all, every voter has a right to make a free choice. On September 30, we will have the right to decide whether or not to grant confidence to those who have repeatedly demonstrated to Slovakia their inability to cooperate together constructively," said Solymos. Earlier this month, Sulik called on parties that rank in the polls below the 5-percent threshold required to make it to Parliament to withdraw. Leader of Blues, Most Hid and former premier Mikulas Dzurinda (1998-2006) has already signaled that he doesn't plan to do so. BRATISLAVA - OLANO leader Igor Matovic released an excerpt of chats between Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) chair Richard Sulik and Penta group financier Jaroslav Hascak, dated from the autumn 2020, in which Hascak supposedly furnished Sulik with instructions on what kinds of arguments to use when dealing with the financing of health insurance companies, TASR learnt on Sunday. The chats allegedly originate from Sulik's mobile phone. Matovic declared that releasing these conversations is in public interest and called them a proof that SaS, his former coalition partner, served "the mafia". According to the released chats, in September-October 2020 Hascak wrote to Sulik, then Vice-premier and the Economy Minister, that he found a proposal to complete the financing of the health insurers "silly and ill-advised". Subsequently, Sulik asked him for arguments that could be voiced against the proposal at a session of the government and to send them also to MP Jana Bitto Ciganikova, so that she could use them at a session of the coalition council. In the text, Sulik asked for greater coverage by Penta-owned media for Bitto Ciganikova, "including a nice PR". Matovic pointed out that at the time the government was dealing with additional financing for the state-owned VsZP insurer, Sulik opposed the proposal. Both Sulik and Bitto Ciganikova were exerting pressure successfully within the coalition to have the money split and distributed also among privately-owned health insurers, including Dovera insurance company, owned by Penta. Matovic added that SaS was also pressuring the coalition to oust Marek Krajci as health minister. BRATISLAVA - Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) chair Richard Sulik refused to comment on his alleged chats with Penta group financier Jaroslav Hascak, released by OLANO leader Igor Matovic, and pointed out that SaS has no corruption scandals. Sulik said on Sunday that he had perceived the 2020 proposal to provide state-owned VsZP health insurer with additional €300 million as an extremely bad solution, which was why in the autumn 2020 Sulik promoted as a government member a plan to increase payments on behalf of state policyholders and distribute the money among all three health insurers in Slovakia instead. BRATISLAVA - The Penta investment group has never been silent about the fact that the only way to bring more money into Slovakia's health sector is to increase payments on behalf of state policyholders, and this is also a consensus of the entire health sector, Lenka Vargova of Penta group told TASR on Sunday. "We've always found the repeated introductions of additional financing to the sector via increases to the basic capital of (state-owned) VsZP insurer as egregiously unfair to policyholders of privately-owned heath insurers and discriminating against all taxpayers," Vargova said in response to Sunday's press conference held by OLANO. Penta added that the worst tragedy for Slovak health care was the fact that its financing had been controlled for several years by OLANO representatives, including ex-premier Igor Matovic (2020-21). "The outcome of his amateurish decisions is the fact that the Slovak health sector lacks almost one billion euros today and there's a danger of impending collapse in the provision of health care ," added Vargova. BRATISLAVA - The caretaker Government will unveil dozens of measures to cut down public deficit, but it will do so only after the September 30 parliamentary election, Prime Minister Ludovit Odor declared on RTVS's discussion programme 'Five Minutes to Twelve' on Sunday. "If we unveiled the measures, which might be painful although rational and necessary, during this hateful election campaign, I'm not sure about the outcome. Hence, I'm intensively considering to unveil them only after the election," said Odor. According to the Premier, it would be ideal to consolidate public finances at the level of 5 percent of GDP, but the minimal consolidation would have to equal 3 percent of GDP. BRATISLAVA - Voice-SD is ideologically closer to Smer-SD than Progressive Slovakia (PS) and Voice-SD plans to choose its future coalition partners based on the closest ideological match, Voice-SD chair Peter Pellegrini declared on RTVS's discussion programme 'Five Minutes to Twelve' on Sunday. In a similar vein, PS doesn't consider Voice-SD its preferred partner for a potential post-election coalition, stated PS chair Michal Simecka, also on the show. "But we've been saying for a long time that we're ready to hold talks with any parliamentary political party, provided that it's democratic, pro-European and respects the rule of law," he added. zel