MORNING NEWS HIGHLIGHTS - Wednesday, 8 October 2025 - 9 a.m.

TASR brings a quick morning overview of the most important events seen in Slovakia on the previous day (Tuesday, 7 October): BRATISLAVA - By imposing a fine on President Peter Pellegrini with respect to his 2024 election campaign, the Interior Ministry broke the law, Prosecutor-General Maros Zilinka stated on social media on Tuesday. According to Zilinka, the president is immune to prosecution for administrative offences. He also announced that a prosecutor has filed an official protest with a proposal to annul the ministry’s decision. Pellegrini was fined in March for accepting campaign funds after the legal deadline. „Due to the constitutional privilege of immunity, the president of the Slovak Republic cannot be prosecuted or held accountable during his term of office for unlawful conduct constituting an administrative offence, including breaches of legal obligations related to campaign financing," said Zilinka. BRATISLAVA - The inclusion of nuclear fuel in the European Union's RePowerEU initiative represents the greatest threat to Slovakia, said Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) at the European Nuclear Energy Forum (ENEF) held in Bratislava. Fico warned that such a move could harm the country's energy security. "We can never agree with RePowering when it comes to 1 January 2028, particularly regarding gas. Nor can we agree to decisions that would undermine our energy security. Given that today Slovakia generates over 60 percent of its electricity from nuclear energy, we are talking about a country that is crucial not only for the Slovak Republic but for the region as well," stated Fico. He highlighted Slovakia's ambition to be an innovative country, citing plans to develop small modular reactors and create a centre for processing and reusing spent nuclear fuel. Fico recalled that on 10 September of this year, the Slovak government signed an agreement with the United States concerning the use of infrastructure at the Jaslovske Bohunice nuclear power plant. A new nuclear unit with a capacity exceeding 1,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) is planned. BRATISLAVA - The supplies that make up the 14th package of military aid to Ukraine are a "humanitarian issue", without Slovakia supplying weapons to the country, Defence Minister Robert Kalinak (Smer-SD) told a press conference on Tuesday following his visit to Kiev on Monday (6 October), adding that Ukraine has offered its drone detection technology for the planned drone wall project. "We remain true to what we've always said. We made it clear that we'd no longer donate weapons or similar items to Ukraine, but only non-lethal and, therefore, humanitarian assistance to individual countries, and we're sticking to that," said Kalinak. He also criticised the opposition and the media, accusing them of making statements indicating that the government has changed course with regard to the war in Ukraine. BRATISLAVA - The Slovak Towns and Villages Association (ZMOS) has rejected the state budget draft for next year, warning that it will cut funding for local governments by €246 million, ZMOS chair Jozef Bozik stated on social media following Tuesday's meeting at the Finance Ministry in Bratislava. In addition to this amount, Bozik said there is a one-percent reduction to be reckoned with during the second consolidation phase, as revenue from personal income tax dropped from 56.1 to 55.1 percent (and is expected to decline further to 53 percent next year). "We are talking about a total volume of almost €290 million, which is a huge amount that puts municipal budgets under great pressure," said Bozik. During the meeting, which was also attended by Finance Ministry State Secretary Radovan Majersky, the ZMOS representatives called for a final solution to budgetary rules. BRATISLAVA - The slovensko.sk website is currently in a state of emergency, with the Investment, Regional Development and Informatisation (MIRRI) Ministry recording 26 critical outages since last year, Investment Minister Samuel Migal (Independent) stated at a press conference on Tuesday in response to criticism of procurement processes. Modernisation of the Central Public Administration Information System (UPVS) is thus essential and will be carried out responsibly, transparently and without risk, underlined Migal. "We're conducting the public procurement in an absolutely transparent manner via a so-called dynamic purchasing system – a system specifically designed for this purpose," said Migal. "More than a hundred companies are currently registered in the system, and each one has received detailed descriptions of the contracts," he added. BRATISLAVA - Businessman Stefan Ziga has had a €100,000 fine confirmed for bribing former head of the Financial Police of the National Criminal Agency (NAKA) Bernard Slobodnik, as the fine, originally imposed by the Specialised Criminal Court exactly one year ago, was upheld by the Supreme Court on Tuesday. The decision is final. Should Ziga fail to pay the fine, he'll face an alternative sentence of one year in prison. Ziga was charged over suspicions that he bribed Slobodnik between 2016 and 2020. According to the indictment, Ziga allegedly handed over at least €85,000 in bribes. ko