MORNING NEWS HIGHLIGHTS - Saturday, 7 February 2026 - 9 a.m.

TASR brings a quick morning overview of the most important events seen in Slovakia on the previous day (Friday, 6 February): BRATISLAVA - MP and vice-chair of the opposition Progressive Slovakia (PS) party Tomas Valasek has criticised Defence Minister Robert Kalinak (Smer-SD) over the purchase of Tatra vehicles from a Czech supplier, TASR learnt on Friday. Valasek spoke of suspicions that the ministry is buying flatbed trucks via an intermediary with a mark-up of around 8-9 percent. "Czech journalists revealed yesterday that the difference between the price at which these vehicles are sold by their manufacturer, Tatra, and the price at which we buy them from an intermediary company is at the level of 8-9 percent," he warned, adding that the unit prices in the contracts are classified. "If an 8-9-percent mark-up is also fixed in them, we're talking about roughly €150 million that we may be overpaying for the Tatras," he added. According to Valasek, the current contract contains a binding order for 250 vehicles. "At the same time, the minister signed two framework agreements for the possible purchase of additional vehicles totalling €1.7 billion," he said. BRATISLAVA - The Defence Ministry will file a motion to review decisions by the law-enforcement authorities in cases related to the donation of military equipment to Ukraine, Defence Ministry State Secretary Igor Melicher announced at a press conference on Friday. He was joined at the press conference by Defence Minister Robert Kalinak, Parliamentary Vice-chair Tibor Gaspar and MP Richard Gluck (all Smer-SD). Gluck, who also chairs the House defence and security committee, said that he'll convene a special emergency session to which Bratislava Region Prosecutor Rastislav Remeta will be invited. He repeatedly linked the prosecutor to the opposition. The defence minister argued that other countries haven't sent their air-defence systems or aircraft from active service to Ukraine. Gaspar added that the argument that Slovakia suffered no damage doesn't hold. Even if the fighters were non-operational, they would still have had financial value and, in his view, the state should have tried to obtain this value by selling them. The politicians pointed out that in 2020 some MPs of the then-governing OLaNO party proposed regional prosecutor Remeta for the post of prosecutor-general. BRATISLAVA - Defence Minister Robert Kalinak and House Vice-chair Tibor Gaspar (both Smer-SD) said at a news conference held by the Defence Ministry on Friday that they can envisage the election of a new prosecutor-general (PG) taking place before the next general election due to be held in the autumn of 2027. The two officials believe that a new PG should be elected well in advance. "I think it's a very good idea. After all, you wouldn't elect a PG after [the previous] term has expired, it should be done beforehand. If we can elect a president four or five months in advance, I view this as being absolutely appropriate as well," said Kalinak. Gaspar stressed that the coalition isn't considering the premature replacement of Maros Zilinka in the PG's post. He called on the prosecution service to approach cases in an objective manner. The seven-year tenure of the current PG will expire in December 2027. BRATISLAVA - The Slovak Prosecutors Council agrees with the assessment of Prosecutor-General Maros Zilinka regarding the state of corruption investigations in Slovakia and is seriously alarmed by claims made by Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) and other politicians that the prosecution service has become involved in political struggle, council chair Stanislav Jakubcik told TASR on Friday. "In this context, the council considers it necessary to point out that as early as in December 2023 it strongly and in advance warned against the negative consequences of abolishing specialised anti-corruption bodies and bypassing expert discussion. We warned that adopting fundamental changes to criminal policy without proper preparation would lead to a weakening of the fight against serious organised crime," said Jakubcik. The chair added that the council stressed that media attacks aren't a tool of justice and that the Slovak legal system contains mechanisms for reviewing decisions by authorities. "The council therefore calls for criticism of prosecutors' decisions and procedures to be conducted in a factual, professional and decent manner, without personal insults or unfounded assumptions. Failure to respect these principles significantly undermines public trust in the rule of law, justice and the independence of the law-enforcement authorities," reads a statement. BRATISLAVA - The police halted the criminal investigation in the case concerning the management of the COVID-19 pandemic, TASR has learnt from the Regional Prosecutor's Office in Trencin, which is supervising the case. "By a resolution dated 28 January 2026, a police investigator has discontinued criminal investigation into excess deaths related to the COVID-19 pandemic, obstruction of the duties of a public official and the crime of general endangerment," Vlastimil Krokvicka from the Regional Prosecutor's Office confirmed to TASR. Information regarding the current status of the proceedings was published by news outlet aktuality.sk on Friday, citing lawyer Peter Weis who - among others - filed a criminal complaint in connection with the management of the pandemic. On the website of his law firm, Weis stated that, according to the resolution, the competent authorities carried out all measures with regard to information, knowledge and experience as available in real time, with a focus on protecting human health and lives. BRATISLAVA - The extra-parliamentary Democrats party has collected 350,000 signatures in support of calling a referendum on shortening the term in office of the current government of Robert Fico (Smer-SD), party leader Jaroslav Nad told a news conference on Friday. According to Nad, the aim of the referendum is an early termination of the current government's term, the restoration of the Special Prosecutor's Office and the National Crime Agency (NAKA), as well as the scrapping of a lifetime salary for Fico. "I'm positive that this referendum, once called, will be another, extremely important step towards Robert Fico's defeat," stated the leader of Democrats. Nad said that the aim is to collect several thousand more signatures by the end of February. "If anyone wants to speculate and disqualify some signatures, we want to make sure it won't help them and that we'll submit the required number of valid signatures," he stated. Given previous statements by President Peter Pellegrini, Democrats vice-chair Juraj Seliga expects that he won't turn to the Constitutional Court and will be fully cooperative. "Similarly, we expect that the respective authorities won't thwart a referendum in any way," he added. jrg