Danko forces Taraba to leave, he threatens autonomy in parliament
STVR confirmed in its evening news that Prime Minister Fico is to submit a proposal to the president to recall Deputy Prime Minister and Environment Minister Tomáš Taraba (an SNS nominee) by September 15 STVR ↗. SNS chairman Andrej Danko revealed the background of the dispute during a broadcast of the disinformation outlet Infovojna, Denník N writes: by his own account, he had for years left Taraba autonomy at the ministry without interfering in public procurement, but the minister gradually fell into disagreements with several actors, including the Kuffa family — the very family from which the SNS wants Taraba's successor to come. As a conciliatory gesture, he had offered him his own seat as deputy speaker of the National Council back in the summer; Taraba turned down the offer without explanation Denník N ↗.At the same time, the dispute also spread to assets: the SNS called on Taraba to immediately stop the sale of the environment ministry's movable and immovable property, namely the state-owned Hotel Bobrovník above Liptovská Mara, which belongs to the Slovak Water Management Enterprise. The ministry, under Taraba's leadership, rejected the accusations as a lie and assured that no surplus property would be sold without government approval Aktuality.sk ↗. Several newsrooms described the dispute as a major coalition conflict over state assets, in which both sides accuse each other of lying Pravda ↗.
At a press conference in Kysucký Lieskovec, Taraba ruled out accepting a potential ambassadorial post in Paris or New York if he were recalled, and announced that he would return to the National Council as an "ordinary autonomous MP" — "autonomous, because today I'm being criticized for being an autonomous minister," he said in response to Danko's criticism. He told the coalition that however it treats him, he will treat it accordingly in return Postoj ↗. Prime Minister Fico commented on the unfolding dispute in a Saturday video: he said he is "unhappy" about the development of the relationship between Taraba and the SNS, which, in his view, is not calming down but escalating to an extreme, and that if Danko and Taraba fail to reach an agreement, he expects the environment minister to resign ta3 ↗.
Fico threatens government collapse: budget, Hlas, and F-16 fighter jets
Tension also spread to the budget. Hlas chairman Matúš Šutaj Eštok declared in Saturday's discussion program on Slovak Radio that if his party's package of social laws does not pass — raising the stroller allowance for a first child to 1,000 euros and a lifetime income tax exemption for parents with four or more children — the government will not proceed further. This angered Fico so much that in a video on social media he stated that Smer can adopt an equally ultimatum-like stance, and that the budget must not become a tool for anyone to blackmail coalition partners SME ↗. According to Aktuality.sk, the prime minister directly threatened the collapse of the government over the budget, saying he would not let himself be blackmailed by either Hlas or the SNS Aktuality.sk ↗. In the video, Fico also addressed harsher words to the opposition, comparing them to "as wise as Solomon's pants" Hospodárske noviny ↗.Meanwhile, Hlas backed down from one of its own certainties — the planned abolition of the transaction tax — stating that balancing the budget takes priority Štandard ↗. The dispute over defense belongs in the same bag: Defense Minister Robert Kaliňák presented a proposal to the government to purchase four additional F-16 fighter jets for almost 400 million euros, but Education Minister and Hlas representative Tomáš Drucker announced on the program Kráľ na ťahu that his party would not support it ta3 ↗. Kaliňák, for his part, downplays concerns about the price: according to him, the original estimate will not come close to a billion, and the overrun will only amount to "a few tens of millions" Expres ↗.
Žilinka under pressure: Fico wants him out, opposition targets prosecution powers
The case surrounding Prosecutor General Maroš Žilinka, which last edition covered through the suspension of prosecutor Kysel, escalated further over the weekend: according to an overview of politicians' statements, Fico put direct pressure on Žilinka to resign, and the prosecutor general sent him a clear message that he does not intend to Hospodárske noviny ↗. Denník N notes that Smer itself acknowledges why it is attacking Žilinka right now — it is linked to its own drop in the polls over unfulfilled pre-election promises Denník N ↗. Political scientist Radoslav Štefančík commented more sharply: in his view, Fico and Smer are under time pressure and panicking because some cases are not developing as they had hoped, and politicians attacking the prosecution want to be certain that "no one will drag them out of bed at night in their underwear." This is a political scientist's assessment, not a proven claim about the ruling party's motives Pravda ↗.The opposition Progressive Slovakia brought a concrete legislative proposal into this atmosphere — a change to the prosecutor general's powers TERAZ ↗. Alongside it stands the previously announced so-called Lex Para, through which PS wants to legally restrict the conflict of interest of lawyers advising Fico's government SITA ↗ — both proposals have only a small chance of passing in the current composition of parliament.
State money: expensive fuel, an A rating, and a dispute over fictitious sheep
Fuel prices in Slovakia reached new highs in early September, while Interior Minister and Hlas leader Matúš Šutaj Eštok notes that, despite this, it is still the eighth-cheapest fuel within the EU STVR ↗. According to him, the government is discussing the possibility of price regulation at the cabinet level, and Economy Minister Denisa Saková is in contact with Slovnaft Pravda ↗. PS leader Michal Šimečka added his own figure to the discussion: according to him, there are hundreds of millions of euros that Slovnaft owes the state, which could be used to compensate households and industries STVR ↗ — this is a claim by an opposition politician, not a verified sum.The same week also brought good news for the state treasury: the Canadian rating agency Morningstar DBRS confirmed Slovakia's rating unchanged at A (low) with a stable outlook and expects the economy to recover STVR ↗.
The opposition also opened a smaller but juicier case at the Ministry of Agriculture. Progressives and KDH claim at a joint briefing that the Union of Sheep and Goat Breeders registered animals with falsified origin in the breeding book as an endangered breed, allowing breeders to obtain EU fund subsidies to which they would not otherwise be entitled — and that this is the likely reason why Agriculture Minister Richard Takáč decided to abolish the state enterprise Plemenárske služby SR Trend ↗. The ministry and the breeders themselves reject the accusations as misleading Pravda ↗. For now, these are mutually contradictory claims without independently verified evidence.
Under the radar
The Slovak Chamber of Teachers adds a factual note to the results of the PISA 2025 international testing, which one of the previous editions of this column covered: compared to our V4 neighbors, especially Poland and Czechia, we are worse off, and "we cannot be pleased that we became better simply because others got worse" TERAZ ↗.SNS MPs withdrew from parliament a bill that would have transformed the Council for Media Services into a National Media Authority — sponsor Roman Michelko admitted that political agreement is still lacking Denník N ↗. The proposal thus follows the fate of this year's dispute over the STVR Council, which the coalition used to remove Lukáš Machala.
What hotinfo is watching
- By Tuesday (September 15): whether Prime Minister Fico will actually send the president a proposal to recall Minister Taraba — in his own video he spoke rather of an agreement "by the end of September," so the deadline is not consistent among coalition sources.
- Hotel Bobrovník: how the dispute over the sale of the Slovak Water Management Enterprise's assets will be resolved and whether the environment ministry will actually suspend the process.
- The 2027 budget: whether Hlas will push through its social package and whether an agreement on the purchase of F-16 fighter jets will ultimately be reached, or whether the dispute with Kaliňák will turn into another coalition clash.
- Žilinka and his future: how political attacks on the prosecutor general will continue and whether Progressive Slovakia will get the change to his powers through at least to a second reading.
- The fictitious sheep case: whether the Ministry of Agriculture will publish an audit of the breeding book and what will happen to the abolition of the state enterprise Plemenárske služby SR.
