What Slovakia is writing about: Šimkovičová dismissed members of the fund council five days before the vote for its chief. In the evening she also called for the entire call to be scrapped

Culture Minister Martina Šimkovičová removed two people from the Council of the Fund for the Support of the Arts, both of whom she herself had nominated, five days before the council is due to elect a new director of the fund. Those dismissed say they lost their seats at the moment when they refused to support one specific candidate, while the minister rejects that and speaks of stabilising the fund. On Thursday evening, the same minister recommended that the council cancel the entire call for director and announce a new one. The day's second thread is unfolding in Brussels, where Slovakia, according to two foreign outlets, blocked an extension of sanctions against Russians, and the opposition is calling the foreign minister before a parliamentary committee over it. And thirdly, after almost a three-month break, MPs are returning to the chamber on 15 September with more than a hundred items they did not manage to debate before the summer.

The minister dismissed her own people from the council and in the evening called for the call to be scrapped

The Council of the Fund for the Support of the Arts is due to elect a new director on 8 September. Five days before that, two of its members, Peter Grutka and Adriana Tomičová, who unexpectedly lost their posts, spoke out. In an email to the media, they linked their departure to the fact that they refused to lend their votes to the election of František Kornaj, who had until then led the fund in an interim capacity. These are people nominated to the council by the minister herself, and Grutka heads the public procurement section at her ministry. SME ↗ Pravda ↗

Newsrooms differed in what they chose to emphasise. Pravda and SME put the five-day gap before the vote in the headline, that is, the timing. Aktuality asked about the motive, whether this was a sidelining for insubordination, and added that candidates for the director's post are withdrawing. The ta3 television station said in the morning that, according to the Ministry of Culture, both nominees ended on 1 September by mutual agreement, which is a different version of the same move than the one described by those dismissed. Aktuality.sk ↗ ta3 ↗

In the afternoon, the minister pushed back. She described the dismissal as a step toward calming the situation in culture and stabilising the fund, and reminded that the opposition and some coalition MPs had been calling for both of them to leave for a long time. She called the interpretation that this was punishment for refusing to support a specific candidate a deliberate distortion. On the election, she added a sentence that sums up the whole dispute: the council is supposed to decide freely, but that does not mean its members are immune to personnel decisions. TASR ↗ Hospodárske noviny ↗

Late in the afternoon came a reversal that cast the whole day in a different light. The same minister recommended that the council cancel the call for the director's post and announce a new one, because, in her view, questions had arisen about its compliance with the fund law. ta3 summed it up by saying the call is to end up in the bin, while Pravda wrote that the selection is to start again from scratch. So in the afternoon the minister claimed that the personnel change would not affect the vote, and two hours later she was asking for the election to be prepared anew. Pravda ↗ ta3 ↗ Hospodárske noviny ↗

Context that is easy to lose in daily reporting: at the beginning of September, SME described how an employee who confirmed to a journalist that a listening device had been found in the fund was not given a contract extension. The minister called for a thorough and independent investigation into the publicised wiretapping suspicions and added that no final conclusions can be drawn from unverified suspicions. SME ↗

Slovakia was supposed to slow down the sanctions list, the opposition is calling Blanár before a committee

The portals Ukrainska Pravda and Radio Free Europe reported that the Slovak government on Wednesday evening blocked the extension of sanctions affecting more than 3,000 Russians and Russian companies. According to them, Slovakia insists on a six-month extension instead of the year proposed by the Irish presidency, and according to the euBrief portal it is asking for two names to be removed from the list. The Foreign Ministry neither confirmed nor denied the information and said it does not comment on negotiating positions. The states postponed the issue to 9 September and must agree by 15 September, otherwise the sanctions will expire. SME euBrief ↗

MP Veronika Remišová from the committee for European affairs responded with the sharpest wording of the day. She speaks of extremely serious suspicions of collaboration with the Kremlin and is asking that Minister Blanár come before the committee and say whom the government wants removed from the sanctions and whether it consulted anyone about the procedure. This is an accusation by an opposition politician, not a finding by the authorities, and the government has so far not responded substantively. SME ↗ SITA ↗

On the same day, a second story about the same minister emerged. At a meeting with the foreign ministers of member states, Blanár strongly condemned the drone incident at Leipzig airport on 4 August, which, according to the German authorities' investigation, was carried out by Russia, and expressed solidarity with Germany. He also called on the European Union not to escalate. Both reports concern the foreign-policy line of the same minister, but one is based on an official statement from the ministry and the other on information from foreign media, which the ministry did not confirm. Pravda ↗ Hospodárske noviny ↗

Parliament returns on 15 September, with a recall move and an ultimatum waiting

The National Council ended its last regular session on 17 June, and MPs are returning to the chamber only on 15 September. More than one hundred agenda items have been moved to September, including an amendment to the Social Insurance Act delivered back in August 2024 and the Prosecutor General's report for 2024, which has been moving through parliament since July 2025. The SITA agency adds that the coalition is also repeatedly postponing proposals to dismiss ministers. SITA ↗

Progressive Slovakia announced that at this session it will again move to dismiss Deputy Speaker of Parliament Tibor Gašpar, who appears in the Očistec case. At the same time, it submitted a constitutional amendment under which the Speaker or a Deputy Speaker of the National Council could not be an MP charged with corruption or offences by public officials. MP Zuzana Mesterová justified it by saying that such a person cannot represent one of the state's highest institutions. This is a draft constitutional law for which the opposition does not have the numbers, so its purpose is more to name the dispute than to win it. SME ↗ SITA ↗

An internal coalition dispute is also headed for the same date. State secretary Filip Kuffa told Denník N that the Slovak National Party will obstruct parliament if Environment Minister Tomáš Taraba does not leave by 15 September. Recall that at the end of August President Peter Pellegrini indicated that he would not appoint Kuffa as minister, because in his view there are better candidates in Slovakia. The September session therefore carries two disputes at once, an opposition recall move and a coalition ultimatum whose deadline falls exactly on its first day. Denník N ↗ Aktuality.sk ↗

The prosecution changes supervision in the case of the former secret service chief

The newspaper Postoj published a decision according to which the Prosecutor General's Office took supervision over the case of the former Slovak Information Service director Vladimír Pčolinský away from prosecutor Peter Kysel. The decision of 1 September was signed on behalf of Prosecutor General Maroš Žilinka by his deputy Jozef Kandera, and prosecutor Ján Hrivnák took over the case. As the reason, the prosecution said that Kysel is suspected of abuse of power by a public official, which may cast doubt on his impartiality, though it did not specify the matter further. It was Kysel who filed the appeal after the Specialized Criminal Court acquitted Pčolinský, and the Supreme Court is deciding on that appeal. Postoj ↗

A second shift occurred in the same case. On 27 August, the prosecutor from the regional prosecutor's office withdrew the motion to conditionally discontinue the criminal prosecution of former Slovak Information Service deputy Boris Beňa, according to a letter in Denník N's possession, on the instructions of the regional prosecutor. This happened a day after the weekly Plus 7 dní wrote about the different approach to two cooperating accused. Ľudovít Makó meanwhile faces an indictment in a case involving a 40,000-euro bribe. SME ↗ Pravda ↗

A dispute over addresses and one ruling on a dismissal

Denník N summarised a case that concerns the boundaries of journalistic work and political retaliation. At the end of August, Aktuality wrote about a house that the family of MEP Ľuboš Blaha bought in an upmarket part of Bratislava, and in the video accompanying the article the location of the house with its house number briefly appeared on the map. The newsroom admits that this was a mistake. Blaha then published on Tuesday where the flats of Aktuality editor-in-chief Peter Bárdy and reporter Tomáš Kyseľ are located, saying he was giving them a taste of their own medicine. Denník N builds from this the question that does not have a single answer: under what circumstances can journalists publish a politician's home address, and can a politician do the same to them in retaliation? Denník N ↗

That same day, the topic took on a legal dimension. Bratislava IV City Court ruled that the dismissal Markíza television gave presenter Michal Kovačič in June 2024 was invalid, but it also ended his employment. According to the court, Kovačič breached work discipline, but the dismissal was disproportionate and milder measures existed. Kovačič described it as a battle over freedom of speech, while the television's legal representative Tomáš Kamenec stressed that the court confirmed the breach of work discipline and the absolute breakdown of mutual trust. This is a first-instance ruling and both sides are considering an appeal, so nothing is final yet. Denník N ↗ Aktuality.sk ↗ Hospodárske noviny ↗

State Money

Tax revenues of the state budget rose year on year by 1.29 billion euros by the end of August, or 9.8 percent, mainly thanks to higher collection of value added tax and corporate income tax. At the same time, however, monthly budget performance reached 98.6 percent, so 202.9 million euros are missing compared with the plan. Growth and falling short of the plan are not in conflict here: revenues are growing quickly, just more slowly than the budget expected. TASR ↗

Education Minister Tomáš Drucker told TASR that an audit of the ePrihlášky portal found shortcomings in the management of development and risks on the supplier's side, and the ministry will seek compensation of 200,000 to 300,000 euros, either in cash or in the form of free development of new features. He added that these were not fatal errors. At the same time, the opposition Slovakia Movement submitted an amendment under which the special levy on refineries would rise from 0.025 to 0.04, that is by sixty percent, from the end of 2026. Aktuality.sk ↗ TASR ↗

Denník E pointed to a request that is only indirectly related to consolidation. Eustream is again asking for a significant increase in gas transit fees, because the transported volumes have fallen to a minimum and the company is trying to make up for profits from which the state treasury once also benefited. The regulator does not want to grant the full amount for now. Denník E ↗

Under the Radar

The strongest figure of the day in our monitored selection came from a single newsroom. According to a survey by the Association of Private Physicians, 23 percent of doctors want to leave practice within three years and another 26 percent within six. Association president Marián Šóth says that the outpatient sector provides 70 percent of healthcare and 90 percent of diagnostics, so this would be a collapse. Health Minister Kamil Šaško points to the human resources strategy and the transformation of the Faculty of Health Sciences in Banská Bystrica. INEKO institute director Dušan Zachar does not expect half of doctors to actually leave within six years, but he does confirm that outpatient clinics are underfunded compared with hospitals. STVR ↗

Only one newspaper carried the second topic. According to an audit report and notes to the 2025 financial statements, the Dôvera health insurer was assessed tax of 15.4 million euros and a fine of almost 11 million euros for underpaying tax in the years 2016 to 2020. This was pointed out by tax adviser and former head of the Office for Supervision of Healthcare Renáta Bláhová, according to whom the insurer will pay the amount from health insurance contributions. The insurer refuses to answer the author's questions in the interview. SME ↗

The third item is a precise correction from regional reporting. Košice regional governor Rastislav Trnka is being prosecuted in two cases, but neither has reached the stage at which the court orders a main hearing and the accused becomes the defendant. In the joined case of overpriced purchases of thermometers and spreaders, the prosecutor filed an indictment more than a year ago and the judge has still not decided whether to accept it or return it. Korzár points out that the label defendant is not procedurally accurate in these cases, even though Trnka's political opponents use it. Korzár ↗

Also read: What Slovakia is writing about: Fico wants Vision 2040 even with the opposition. Raši opened the question of a referendum on Constitution Day

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Illustrative photo: The building of the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic on SNP Square in Bratislava. Author Fred Romero, CC BY 2.0 licence, Wikimedia Commons.