MORNING NEWS HIGHLIGHTS - Wednesday, 24 September 2025 - 9 a.m.

TASR brings a quick morning overview of the most important events seen in Slovakia on the previous day (Tuesday, 23 September): NEW YORK/BRATISLAVA - Slovakia is a full-fledged member of NATO and has so far supported the countries affected by incursions into their airspace, Slovak President Peter Pellegrini and Foreign Affairs Minister Juraj Blanar (Smer-SD) stressed at a briefing for the media during the United Nations General Assembly in New York, TASR informed on Tuesday. Their statement came in response to reports that Slovakia should be excluded from talks on building the so-called "drone wall" along the EU's eastern border. Pellegrini said that he will meet with defence minister and the chief of the general staff to discuss how Slovakia, together with its allies, will be able to protect its airspace, so that the country's eastern border would not become some kind of an unsecured gap leading into Western Europe. "NATO's eastern border must be fully protected regardless of the countries involved, otherwise it makes no sense," said Pellegrini. BRATISLAVA - The opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party considers it unacceptable for Pavol Gaspar to remain at the helm of the Slovak Information Service (SIS), arguing that his continued leadership endangers Slovakia's security and undermines the credibility of the intelligence service both at home and abroad. "Pavol Gaspar shows with each passing day that he was never ready to bear the responsibility of such an important role. And we must remember that we aren't living in peaceful times. There's a war going on in our neighbouring country, Ukraine. Russian drones fly into Poland, and the airspace of our NATO partners is being violated. Slovakia must be aware of its position in all this," said SaS vice-chair Maria Kolikova at a press conference on Tuesday. Kolikova expressed doubts about how trustworthy Gaspar is in the eyes of foreign intelligence partners. She also lambasted him over a past traffic incident and recent revelations that his diploma thesis was probably plagiarised. In additional, she recalled previous allegations that the SIS director has leaked classified information within his family. BRATISLAVA - Marta Simeckova, the mother of opposition Progressive Slovakia (PS) leader Michal Simecka, has announced on a social network that she and her colleague Andrea Pukova will defend themselves against attacks by filing a criminal complaint. The two are reacting in this way to statements about the misuse of public finances and fraudulent conduct made by Premier Robert Fico (Smer-SD) last weekend. Simeckova rejected the premier's claims that she and Pukova wanted to draw money from the state budget in connection with the Central European Forum project for their own enrichment. She admitted that they made several mistakes in the past, but declared that they've never hidden from responsibility for them. She stressed that this is the case now as well, giving assurances that if an institution authorised by law decides that they are obliged to return something to the state budget, they will accept this and return the money. BRATISLAVA - The number of public holidays during which shops will be required to close is going to be reduced to 5.5 days, while MPs' salaries and flat-rate allowances will be frozen and changes will also to be made to the VAT classification of certain food items, according to measures presented in Parliament by Finance Minister Ladislav Kamenicky (Smer-SD) at the start of the second reading of the government's latest round of fiscal consolidation on Tuesday. "The amendment specifies which holidays will fall under the retail sales ban. To be clear, the sales ban is due to apply to the following days: 1 January, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, 24 December after midday, and 25 and 26 December," said Kamenicky. The revised package also includes exemptions from the higher VAT rate for certain foods high in sugar and salt. Milk products and yoghurt drinks without coffee, tea or substitutes will remain under the 19-percent VAT rate. "Selected non-alcoholic beverages without added sugar, sweeteners, coffee, tea or their substitutes will also be exempt and remain at 19 percent," added Kamenicky. BRATISLAVA - Protests organised by opposition parties Progressive Slovakia (PS), Freedom and Solidarity (SaS), the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH), and the extra-parliamentary Democrats party against austerity measures under the consolidation of public finances are taking place in Bratislava, Kosice, Banska Bystrica, Zilina and other towns and cities across Slovakia on Tuesday evening. "This government is mocking the people. Being unable to cut its own costs, the government raises the people's social and health insurance payments and taxes, while at the same abolishing public holidays. And they do not even want us to talk about it. In parliament, they've silenced us, so we continue in the squares all around Slovakia," said the organisers. Protests are also held in Presov, Trnava, Nitra, Trencin, Bardejov, Kezmarok, Liptovsky Mikulas, Lucenec, Povazska Bystrica, Ruzomberok, Senica, Spisska Nova Ves, Pezinok, Myjava, Martin, Rimavska Sobota, Revuca and Svidnik. BRATISLAVA - A pre-trial judge of the Specialised Criminal Court (STS) has ordered the detention of N.K. [name abbreviated due to legal reasons] as part of an investigation into the disappearance of journalist Pavol Rypal, TASR reported on Tuesday based on information from Maria Horakova of STS, who said that the detention applies for the duration of a temporary transfer to Slovakia's territory between 22 September and 3 October. With the final decision based on the Act on the European Investigation Order, the STS judge on Monday (22 September) ordered the detention of the person being surrendered for proceedings in Slovakia as a form of custody linked exclusively to carrying out procedural steps related to the case in hand. As reported by the media, the person extradited from Hungary has spoken about some details of the case, which is being handled by the Office for Combating Organised Crime. ko