MORNING NEWS HIGHLIGHTS - Friday, 26 September 2025 - 9 a.m.

TASR brings a quick morning overview of the most important events seen in Slovakia on the previous day (Thursday, 25 September): BRATISLAVA – Chair of the Voice-SD parliamentary caucus Robert Puci rejected claims that the vote on the government’s constitutional amendment was postponed due to the absence of MP Jan Blchac (Voice-SD). Puci said this to journalists in Parliament, in response to allegations made by MP Igor Matovic ('Slovakia'-For the People- Christian Union alliance), who had claimed the postponement was caused by Blchac’s absence. Puci pointed out that 90 votes are required to pass a constitutional change, and the coalition does not have that number — with or without Blchac. „He was duly and legitimately excused from the entire day and the entire session,” Puci added, noting that everyone was aware of this. Michal Simecka, leader of the opposition Progressive Slovakia, reacted to the delay by stating that Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) is watching “the dam against progressivism” fall apart under his hands — just like the government. He highlighted that the constitutional amendment has been pushed forward for months and criticised Fico for being unable to even get coalition MPs to attend the session. „They saw it would end in defeat, so they’re trying to buy time until tomorrow to pressure some MPs,” he told reporters. According to MP Jana Bitto Ciganikova (Freedom and Solidarity/SaS), the delay represents a defeat for the coalition. „Even on such an important constitutional law, which they’ve been using for months to cover up coalition scandals, inflation, and issues that truly affect people, they couldn’t gather enough MPs to vote,” she noted, calling the coalition weak. She believes the opposition is succeeding in maintaining enough votes to block the constitutional amendment, despite attempts to break their ranks. She expressed hope that the amendment will also fail in Friday’s (26 September) vote. Parliament chair Richard Rasi (Voice-SD) announced on Thursday that the vote on the government’s constitutional amendment will take place on Friday at 11:00 a.m. It was originally scheduled for Thursday evening. Rasi justified the delay by noting that several speakers have registered to take part in the debate for the third reading. BRATISLAVA - If parliamentary election had been held in September, opposition's Progressive Slovakia party would have won on 23.1 percent of votes, whereas governing Smer-SD would have ended up second on 17.4 percent and Voice-SD third on 11 percent, according to polls conducted by the AKO agency on behalf of Joj24 TV. 'Slovakia' party would have been fourth with 8.7 percent, followed up by Republic (8.2 percent), SaS (7.4 percent) and KDH (7.2 percent). Failing to make the 5-percent threshold would have been 'Democrats' (4.9 percent), SNS (4.6 percent), We Are Family (3.5 percent) and Hungarian Alliance (2.9 percent). Other parties would have garnered less than 0.5 percent each. Based on such results, PS would have commanded 42 seats in Parliament, Smer-SD 31, Voice-SD 20, 'Slovakia' 16, Republic 15, whereas SaS and KDH 13 each. The poll was carried out in September 8-22 on a sample of 1,000 respondents. BRATISLAVA – Leader of the junior coalition party Voice-SD Matus Sutaj Estok claimed that the party is not yet ready to expel Jan Ferencak from its ranks, but pointed out that Ferencak's recent views do not represent those of the party, and Sutaj Estok plans to hold a one-on-one discussion with Ferencak because of that, TASR learnt on Thursday. Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, Sutaj Estok criticised Ferencak's stance during a parliamentary vote on a package of fiscal consolidation measures for next year, in which Ferencak abstained. „I will talk to Ferencak. He is a member of the Voice parliamentary caucus and of the party itself. However, recently his views have not represented those of the caucus or the party. Still, every stray sheep has space in our party – we can sit down and discuss how we want to operate going forward, because we care about the stability of this coalition and we want to be a stable partner," Sutaj Estok said. He expressed disappointment that Ferencak had not discussed his position within the party. „I find it absolutely irresponsible to side with the opposition, which has not come up with a single proposal and is merely tossing populist rhetoric into the public space," he added. House Chair Richard Rasi (Voice–SD) also criticised Ferencak's statements regarding his support for the government coalition. He stressed that the consolidation bill was a key piece of legislation and urged Ferencak not to act independently. „We need to hold the line of this government, of which we are a voluntary part and with the intent to remain," Rasi concluded. BRATISLAVA - MPs will finally vote on the government's amendment to the Constitution at 11.00 a.m. on Friday (26 September), Parliamentary Chair Richard Rasi (Voice-SD) stated on Thursday. "As there are several people registered for the debate, we won't vote today, we'll vote tomorrow at 11.00 a.m., the debate will continue," said Rasi. The vote was originally scheduled for Thursday evening. Five opposition MPs were registered for the debate at the third reading of the constitutional amendment. According to the parliamentary Rules of Procedure, at the third reading a lawmaker may only propose the correction of legislative-technical errors and linguistic mistakes. NEW YORK - Slovakia considers respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognised borders to be essential, and it refuses to recognise the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula and other Ukrainian regions, Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar (Smer-SD) has stated at the fifth summit of the Crimea Platform in New York, TASR was told by the ministry's communications department on Thursday. In addition to Blanar, President Peter Pellegrini also represented Slovakia at the 'Fifth Crimea Agreement Summit'. On behalf of Slovakia, they jointly expressed support for respecting international law and a commitment to upholding justice and accountability in global relations. In New York, Blanar also held bilateral talks with Vice-premier and Foreign Minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and met President of the 80th session of the UN General Assembly Annalena Baerbock. Together with his counterpart from the UAE, Blanar praised bilateral relations and the intensive political dialogue between the two countries. Their discussion focused on preparations for the upcoming official visit of Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) to the UAE, which is due to take place in October of this year. "This visit will be an important impetus for further strengthening mutual dialogue. Our goal is for cooperation to bring specific results both at the bilateral and multilateral levels," said Slovakia's chief diplomat, who accepted an invitation to pay an official visit to the UAE. According to the statement, Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan confirmed his interest in deepening further cooperation with Slovakia via investment projects. Mutual trade turnover between the two countries has grown significantly in recent years, exceeding €780 million last year, said the Slovak ministry. Trade exchanges are mainly focused on the automotive, electrical, mechanical engineering and chemical industries, it said. The topic of the meeting with the former head of German diplomacy Baerbock was the current and future functioning of the United Nations and Slovakia's efforts to participate actively in the discussion on the use of artificial intelligence. The Slovak side informed Baerbock about the upcoming Global Partnership for Artificial Intelligence (GPAI Summit 2025) - an event to be held in Bratislava in November. mf