MORNING NEWS HIGHLIGHTS - Friday, May 10, 2024 - 9 a.m.

TASR brings a quick morning overview of the most important events seen in Slovakia on the previous day (Thursday, May 9): BRATISLAVA - The government rejects the motion to hold a no-confidence vote in Culture Minister Martina Simkovicova (an SNS nominee), according to a decision made at a session of the government on Thursday. The no-confidence motion in Simkovicova is slated to be discussed by Parliament on Friday (May 10) morning. The proposal to hold a no-confidence vote in Simkovicova was tabled by lawmakers of Progressive Slovakia (PS) and SaS back in February. In their view, the minister is interfering unduly with the freedom of culture with her statements and actions. In addition, the lawmakers take objection to changes about to be made to artistic funds and worry that the funds might have their public character and independence destroyed. BRATISLAVA - The investigation into Tuesday's (May 7) extensive false bomb alerts against schools will be overseen by a prosecutor of the Prosecutor-General's Office's serious crimes department and prosecuted as an aggravated terrorist attack, punishable by life imprisonment, according to information provided to TASR by Prosecutor-General's Office spokesperson Zuzana Drobova on Thursday. On Tuesday, more than 1,500 false bomb threats were made against nursery, primary and secondary schools. The police believe the coordinated threats were part of a cyber attack falling under the hybrid threat category. The police increased vigilance concerning the security of schools on Thursday. BANSKA BYSTRICA - Two secondary schools in Banska Bystrica had to be evacuated on Thursday due to threatening emails reporting the presence of bombs, TASR learnt from Banska Bystrica Region spokesperson Lenka Stepanekova on the same day. "No explosives have been found," said Stepanekova, adding that the schools in question were Andrej Sladkovic Prep School and Jozef Murgas Vocational School. The email threats came against the backdrop of more than 1,500 false bomb reports against nursery, primary and secondary schools made on Tuesday (May 7), which police believe was a cyber attack falling into a category of hybrid threats. Aside from this attack, there were several individual concomitant false bomb alerts as well. BRATISLAVA - Members of the House constitutional committee failed to convene a session on Thursday at which opposition lawmakers intended to inquire about the circumstances surrounding the Justice Ministry's queries regarding the Supreme Court docket and the way in which court cases have been assigned, TASR learnt on the same day. The opposition wanted to discuss the issue with Justice Minister Boris Susko (Smer-SD) and Supreme Court chair Jan Sikuta. Members of the committee discussed the matter only in an informal capacity. Branislav Vanco (PS) asked the coalition why it blocked a proper session, adding that the opposition only wanted to find out whether the Justice Ministry has been imposing an undue and intimidating inspection on the Supreme Court. The opposition noted that not a single session that it's initiated has been convened. In his response, committee vice-chair Tibor Gaspar (Smer-SD) claimed that it would have been pointless for the committee to discuss the issue, as it's necessary to wait for the inspection results first. Gaspar stressed that the committee shouldn't interfere with a supervisory mechanism prematurely. He doesn't rule out the possibility that the matter might be addressed by the committee, but in his view there's no reason for this to happen at this point. BRATISLAVA - The Justice Ministry hasn't asked for any court files or specific cases in its probe at the Supreme Court; it only wants to inspect the information system governing the docket via which cases are supposedly randomly assigned to judges, Justice Minister Boris Susko (Smer-SD) declared on Thursday. "The Justice Ministry has never asked for any court files. We don't need them and have never asked for them in any probe," said Susko at a press conference in Parliament. Any claims to the contrary are a purpose-built hoax, he underlined. The Justice Ministry only wants the Supreme Court to submit its case-management system and all data surrounding the assigning of files. However, the Supreme Court refused to allow such a probe, and so, in Susko's view, declared that its file management is beyond the reach of any inspection. Susko added that he hasn't asked for anything than his predecessors didn't request. BRATISLAVA - The Supreme Court is prepared to offer its cooperation to the Justice Ministry and its probe, but, due to constantly changing information, it would welcome it if the Justice Ministry could clarify what it is that is required from the Supreme Court, stated Supreme Court chair Jan Sikuta on Thursday. "We emphasise that all previous inspections have ruled out any manipulation with the random assigning of the court cases," added Sikuta. Sikuta rejected the claim that the Supreme Court has denied employees of the Justice Ministry access to investigate the system of random assigning of cases from the docket. "The existing practice, which we find proper, is that the court extends cooperation to verify random assigning of specific cases. Such cooperation could easily dispel any specific suspicions, but this was rejected by the ministry," said Sikuta, asking the Judicial Council to adopt a stance on the issue. am