MORNING NEWS HIGHLIGHTS - Saturday, 13 December 2025 - 9 a.m.

TASR brings a quick morning overview of the most important events seen in Slovakia on the previous day (Friday, 12 December): BRATISLAVA - MPs overrode President Peter Pellegrini's veto and reapproved a law transforming the Whistleblowers Protection Office (UOO) into a new authority on Friday. A new Crime Victims and Whistleblowers Protection Office will thus be established in Slovakia, replacing the current UOO. In addition to handling whistleblower cases, it will also take over the agenda of compensating victims of crime from the Justice Ministry and review protection within criminal and administrative proceedings. The law should take effect as of 1 January, 2026. Pellegrini vetoed the bill transforming the UOO into a new authority on Thursday (11 December), citing the absence of grounds for fast-tracked legislative procedure, serious substantive concerns about insufficient protection for victims of crime and unresolved objections from the European Commission that could entail consequences for Slovakia. BRATISLAVA - President Peter Pellegrini has said in a video posted on a social network that he won't sign the law on transforming the Whistleblowers Protection Office (UOO) into a new authority even after his veto was overridden by Parliament on Friday. "I'm determined that even after the veto has been overridden, I will not sign the law on scrapping UOO for reasons that still persist," stated the president. Pellegrini stressed that his decision is not and won't be guided by the wishes or expectations of the coalition or opposition. "I will be guided by legal and democratic principles and by building a reputation for Slovakia that will inspire respect among partners in international institutions," he said. At the same time, he strongly condemned the "gladiator arena" and "uncultural spectacle" that accompanied the approval of the amendment to the Penal Code in Parliament on Thursday. "One of our key institutions has suffered moral wounds that have eroded trust among Slovak citizens," he warned. He rejects the legitimisation of violence by higher moral principles. "That negates the moral principle itself," he said. He also doesn't accept trivialising what happened by pointing to similar cases abroad. Concerned about an escalation and incitement of verbal and physical violence, he called for a return to a rational political dialogue. BRATISLAVA - Premier Robert Fico (Smer-SD) welcomes the overturning of President Peter Pellegrini's veto on the bill transforming the Whistleblowers Protection Office (UOO) into a new institution in Parliament, emphasising that Smer-SD will always respect the president but won't support Pellegrini in a future presidential election, TASR has learnt from the prime minister's post on a social network on Friday. "I'd like to thank the governing coalition for today's reapproval [following] the president's veto of the law on the Crime Victims and Whistleblowers Protection Office. Peter Pellegrini doesn't know what it's like to send people to prison without evidence or what it feels like to get a nine-millimetre bullet in the stomach. In my eyes, the president has failed, not because of the law, but because he sided with the people who locked us up and shot at us," wrote the premier. BRATISLAVA - President Peter Pellegrini has lost the confidence of the coalition Slovak National Party (SNS), and the party will never support him for any post again, SNS leader Andrej Danko has said in a video posted on social media. Danko once again criticised Pellegrini, particularly in connection with his veto of the bill to transform the Whistleblowers Protection Office (UOO) into a new authority. "First, you betrayed Robert Fico in 2020. I won't even mention how you became prime minister in 2018. You founded a party, demanded ministries in which you have a long reach when forming a government ... and at the end of the day, you just veto a law that we had a hard time passing in Parliament," Danko told Pellegrini, adding that he's "thrown Voice-SD overboard". The SNS chair also claims that the president knew what tension another vote on this law would cause. According to him, the head of state is therefore responsible for the altercations that took place between MPs on Thursday (11 December). "You bear full responsibility for the mess in parliament," he said. BRATISLAVA - The Whistleblowers Protection Office (UOO) respects MPs' decision to override President Peter Pellegrini's veto earlier on Friday, but it sees it as a step in which political interests have prevailed over the public interest. "We need to say clearly that this is a step against which the European Commission has serious reservations and which fundamentally weakens the protection of whistleblowers and their trust in the state," said Alexandra Znasikova from UOO's communications department. According to Znasikova, MPs were given a second chance to withdraw a harmful law that will unnecessarily and pointlessly worsen the status of whistleblowers. "Unfortunately, they failed to use it, thus endangering 105 current whistleblowers and many more in the future who may lose protection at any time. At the same time, they undermined trust in the rule of law and exposed Slovakia to the real risk of losing significant EU funds," she said. Znasikova stressed that the office itself, as an independent institution, has placed Slovakia among the European leaders in terms of whistleblower protection. "A system into which years of work and public domestic and European funds have been invested is being destroyed by today's decision only because the office found itself in a political fight that never belonged to it," she said. BRATISLAVA - MP and leader of the 'Slovakia' party Igor Matovic will file a criminal complaint against MP Zuzana Plevikova (Smer-SD) for defamation in response to statements at a press conference on Friday concerning Thursday's (11 December) incident in Parliament. Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Matovic rejected claims that he attacked the MP. "I didn't attack MP Plevikova even once, and if anyone was carrying out any attacks, it was her attempts to grab something that she didn't like from my hands," said Matovic. He pointed to evidence from videos from the parliamentary session on the amendment to the Criminal Code, during which he stood in front of indicted Parliamentary Vice-chair Tibor Gaspar (Smer-SD) with a banner reading 'the indicted Gaspar voting for self-amnesty' to stress that the amendment was meant to help the parliamentary vice-chair. According to Matovic, claims that he attacked Plevikova are therefore untrue. "I'll file a criminal complaint against her for defamation," stated Matovic, who also expressed disappointment with leader of Progressive Slovakia Michal Simecka. He regretted that Simecka remained silent throughout Thursday's incident, adding that he was expecting key statements from him during the debate on the Criminal Code amendment as well as on the law transforming the Whistleblowers Protection Office into a new authority. He believes that the PS leader spoke only once, making a factual remark. BRATISLAVA - State-owned rail infrastructure operator ZSR will have a new director, the ZSR communications department stated on Friday, adding that as of 13 December, Miroslav Garaj, who has served as director of strategy and foreign cooperation at ZSR for the past six years, will take over the post. Garaj will replace Ivan Bednarik, who is set to become the new transport minister in the Czech Republic and has been at the helm of ZSR since May of this year. "Managing such a huge state-owned company is certainly a challenge, but sometimes it is even more challenging to work for such a company," said Bednarik. am