MORNING NEWS HIGHLIGHTS - Wednesday, 20 May 2026 - 9 a.m.

TASR brings a quick morning overview of the most important events seen in Slovakia on the previous day (Tuesday, 19 May): BRATISLAVA - Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) on Tuesday received Li Hongzhong, first vice-chair of the Chinese Parliament, at the Slovak Government Office in Bratislava, to discuss bilateral Slovak-Chinese relations and possibilies for their further development, TASR learnt from the Slovak Government Office on the same day. "Our goal is above all pragmatic and very active economic cooperation, including investment cooperation and public-private partnership projects with concrete and tangible results," the prime minister declared. According to the Government Office, China has been Slovakia's most important trading partner in Asia since 2017 and ranks among the country's ten largest economic partners. Two major Chinese investment projects are currently under way in Slovakia — the InoBat/Gotion High Tech battery plant in Surany worth €1.23 billion and the Volvo/Geely project in Valaliky near Kosice worth €1.2 billion. BAKU - Vice-premier and Environment Minister Tomas Taraba (a Slovak National Party/SNS nominee) continued his visit to Azerbaijan by meeting Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Tuesday, TASR has reported. Aliyev noted during the meeting that the two countries are engaged in active cooperation. He recalled that he met Slovak House Chair Richard Rasi (Voice-SD) last week and that he visited Slovakia late last year. He described current relations as friendly. Taraba stressed that Slovakia has always stood by Azerbaijan and that it strongly supports its territorial integrity. He also expressed appreciation for the fact that Azerbaijan has been a reliable supplier whenever Slovakia needed natural gas. BRATISLAVA - House vice-chair Tibor Gaspar (Smer-SD) warned on Tuesday that another politically motivated assassination attempt could occur in Slovakia because of the tense political situation. Gaspar called on all political parties and political representatives in Slovakia to contribute to reconciliation and to de-escalating tensions. In his view, the media should do the same. Gaspar noted that Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD), marking the second anniversary of the assassination attempt against him on Friday (15 May), called for calm and for a "ceasefire" in the political sense and in political competition. Despite this, Gaspar said the he felt that the weekend saw even more escalation than an ordinary political period. The parliamentary vice-chair also referred to statements made by some opposition politicians about him, saying that he felt offended by them. He described them as an obsession and a style of politics that "should be strongly condemned not only rhetorically, but perhaps also by the law-enforcement authorities". He announced that he will file lawsuits over statements directed at him. BRATISLAVA - The junior coalition Slovak National Party (SNS) has distanced itself from the Tatra National Park zoning proposal prepared by Environment Minister Tomas Taraba (an SNS nominee), SNS spokesperson Zuzana Skopcova told TASR on Tuesday, stressing that SNS didn't give Taraba a mandate to submit a zoning proposal that fails to reflect the comments of landowners and other affected entities. SNS is also urging the minister to continue negotiations "without prioritising the interests of oligarchs". "The party views zoning as an extremely sensitive and long-term process that fundamentally affects property relations, the functioning of municipalities, the use of land, and the future of the High Tatras area. Minister Tomas Taraba is acting on his own responsibility, and SNS distances itself from his zoning proposal," stated SNS. The party pointed out that landowners, state-run companies, local governments and employers' organisations submitted major comments to the zoning proposals during inter-departmental review, highlighting that the proposals hadn't been sufficiently discussed, and pointing to legal uncertainty and potential negative impacts on the economy and regional development. "Unfortunately, the minister ignored many of them," said Skopcova. BRATISLAVA - Veronika Remisova, chair of the opposition party For the People, lambasts a promotion campaign worth nearly €300,000 commissioned by Ministry of Investment, Regional Development and Informatization (MIRRI). The campaign is intended to promote digital communication projects with the state financed through EU funds, which, according to For the People, were never implemented. In its response to TASR, MIRRI claimed that communication activities are a standard and mandatory part of EU-funded projects. According to Remisova, projects financed through Slovakia’s Recovery and Resilience Plan were meant to improve communication with the state in various life situations, such as changing permanent residence, selling a house or car, or seeking employment. "The only result that Minister Samuel Migal (independent) has left us in improving life situations is that although he did nothing, he at least promoted that nothing with 30-second videos and pointless advertising, wasting €286,590,” said Remisova, who plans to appeal to the European Commission as well. BRATISLAVA - Unemployment in Slovakia declined across all regions and in most districts in April 2026, with the proportion of jobseekers available for work in the working-age population dropping for the third consecutive month, this time to 3.96 percent, Labour, Social Affairs and the Family Minister Erik Tomas (Voice-SD) told a news conference held on Tuesday. "In April, unemployment dropped below 4 percent, and it's once again approaching the lowest-ever levels that we saw in Slovakia last year," said Tomas. According to him, unemployment decreased in 12 of the 15 districts with the highest unemployment rates. Compared to March, the number of job vacancies increased by 6,481 to 130,634. More than 17,000 unemployed were taken off labour office registers, with more than 80 percent landing a job. "The remaining 20 percent are those who left the register of unemployed people at their own request because they no longer want to be subject to checks, or we removed them from the register due to a lack of cooperation. Some of them may have gone abroad," stated Tomas. ko