MORNING NEWS HIGHLIGHTS - Wednesday, 28 October 2026 - 9 a.m.

TASR brings a quick morning overview of the most important events seen in Slovakia on the previous day (Tuesday, 27 October): BRATISLAVA - President Peter Pellegrini will turn to the Constitutional Court regarding the proposal to appoint Environment Ministry State Secretary Filip Kuffa to the post of Environment Minister and won't appoint him until he receives the court's interpretation, the president announced in a statement made at the Presidential Palace on Tuesday. Pellegrini wants the court to establish a framework for the president in appointing members of the government. According to him, Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) is free to submit a different nomination for minister and, if all requirements are met, the president is ready to appoint the new candidate immediately. "The gist of my motion is to ask the Constitutional Court to establish, through its interpretation, a framework for the president in such disputes between the president and the prime minister over the appointment of government members," said Pellegrini. "In the motion, I seek to establish that the president should have a constitutionally relevant option to examine a proposed candidate for the post of government member based on the information available to the head of state and decide whether to accept or reject the prime minister's proposal," stated Pellegrini, adding that the standards expected of government members mustn't be abandoned, in particular when it comes to integrity of public life. BRATISLAVA - I would take the same approach to other nominations for public office as I have in the case of Filip Kuffa, and this also applies to the possible reappointment of Peter Kazimir as governor of the Slovak Central Bank (NBS), President Peter Pellegrini declared on Tuesday. Pellegrini insisted that he wanted to apply the same standard to all nominations. "Even if Parliament were to approve Peter Kazimir as the NBS governor, given that court proceedings are currently under way against him, I can state here and now that I would not consider the nomination until a final court ruling had established his innocence. Until then, I would not appoint him to a second term as governor. At the same time, if the governor is convicted by a final court ruling, I will remove him from his post as NBS governor as president," Pellegrini said. Kazimir's first term as NBS governor expired in June last year. He remains in office until a successor is appointed, but the governing coalition has yet to reach an agreement on a candidate. The Voice-SD party has long backed Kazimir for a second term, while Smer-SD, the largest governing party, has refused to support him. PRAGUE/BRATISLAVA – Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) and his Czech counterpart Andrej Babis unveiled a statue of Czech-Slovak friendship in the garden of the Czech Government Office on Tuesday, TASR's correspondent in Prague reported on the same day. Fico stated that the monument reaffirms the countries' exceptionally close relations, with cooperation between Slovakia and the Czech Republic being more important now than ever. According to the Slovak prime minister, both countries are facing challenging times, citing the oil crisis and threats of war as examples. "I want to appreciate the fact that, in these difficult times, cooperation between the Czech Republic and Slovakia is proving perhaps more important than ever before," he underlined. "Let's look around us and consider what happened in the former Yugoslavia. Let's look at what's happening in Ukraine today. The Czechs and Slovaks are extremely fortunate that there have never been fratricidal conflicts between us. There have been no mass graves. We have always managed to resolve issues to the mutual satisfaction of both nations, above all in a peaceful spirit and a friendly atmosphere," Fico declared. BRATISLAVA - The confirmation of Slovakia's credit rating by Standard & Poor's (S&P) is good news for Slovakia, Finance Minister Ladislav Kamenicky (Smer-SD) told a news conference on Tuesday in response to the rating published by the agency on Friday (23 October), stressing that the agency also took the state budget adopted for next year into account. According to Kamenicky, the negative scenarios frequently cited by opposition representatives aren't materialising, therefore. "Rating agencies determine the terms at which individual countries secure financing. Standard & Poor's has confirmed our 'A' rating with a stable outlook, so I must say that I'm pleased that our rating is one notch higher than those assigned by other agencies," stated Kamenicky. According to the minister, the agency also recognised that Slovakia holds a significant volume of liquid assets and enjoys solid access to financial markets, which mitigates refinancing risks. Kamenicky pointed to auctions of Slovakia's government bonds over the past two months, in which investor demand consistently exceeded the volume sold, with demand increasing even further in October when compared to September. BRATISLAVA - Opposition party SaS criticises the use of the Cyril application, which allows passengers to buy a single ticket for several types of public passenger transport, warning that the state is losing millions of euros on the project — worth approximately €30 million and run by the Transport Ministry — while public interest remains low. The liberals raised the issue on Tuesday, calling for an immediate review of the project and the contract with Slovak Post. They will also refer the matter to the Supreme Audit Authority (NKU). "Almost nobody uses the application. Slovak Post is even paid €70,000 a month to keep the system running. If you compare this fixed monthly fee and the initial investment of €30 million with the number of tickets sold, each ticket costs €93 excluding VAT," SaS leader Branislav Groehling said. MICHALOVCE - The police have charged four men with electoral corruption in connection with Saturday's (24 October) local elections in Kosice region, including a 29-year-old candidate for mayor of the village of Vrbnica in Michalovce district. Along with another man, he allegedly arranged a change of permanent residence for two voters, reportedly providing them with food and money in exchange for their votes for a specific candidate, Kosice Region Police have reported on social media. According to the police, the candidate, together with a 39-year-old man, allegedly arranged for two other men to change their permanent residence so that they could vote in the village. They reportedly provided them with food, and one of the voters allegedly also received at least €10. ko