What Slovakia Writes About: Blanár Meets with Russian Minister. Susko Defends Register that Revealed Businessmen's ID Numbers

Foreign Affairs Minister Juraj Blanár held an online meeting with Russian Minister of Science and Higher Education Valeriy Falkov, who is on the European Union sanctions list, and is preparing with him an autumn session of the joint intergovernmental commission. At home, Justice Minister Boris Susko is defending a new commercial register portal from which, according to Denník N, personal ID numbers and signatures of managers can be downloaded, while businesspeople in a survey of the same newspaper speak of a disaster. And a survey by SANEP agency for ta3 showed that between Smer and Progressive Slovakia there is now just a 0.7 percentage point difference.

Blanár met with a minister who has an entry ban

• 21.08.Blanár spoke on Friday at a memorial and said exactly what makes his Thursday meeting difficult to defend. The reference to 1968 according to him says that "international relations cannot be based on the right of the stronger to decide over the weaker," and the fate of the country "cannot be decided by foreign power using military force." Postoj highlighted this contrast in the headline: a day earlier he met with Moscow and spoke about pragmatism. Postoj ↗
• 21.08.Fico condemned the occupation, but did not name who carried it out. The Prime Minister spoke about how in 1968 "brutal military force crushed necessary changes," but did not mention the Soviet Union or even the word occupation itself, according to Pravda. Opposition politicians commemorated the anniversary with the opposite emphasis — that turning a blind eye to threats from the east has tragic consequences. Pravda ↗SITA ↗

Blanár conducted a video interview with Valery Falkov on Thursday, a day before the 58th anniversary of the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact forces. It was preparation for the autumn meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission for Economic and Scientific and Technical Cooperation, which the government wants to renew after a five-year break based on an agreement between Prime Minister Robert Fico and Russian President Vladimir Putin from last year. TASR ↗ ta3 ↗

The same news was framed differently by the editorial offices. Pravda put in the headline that Valery Falkov is on the European Union's black list and has an entry ban to Slovakia. Aktuality reminded that the same minister was to set a goal for Russian universities for at least two percent of students to sign a contract with the ministry of defense, and that Ukrainian authorities also link him to the Russification of children from occupied territories. Ta3 presented it as the fulfillment of the Fico-Putin agreement; TASR and SME stuck to the neutral "opposition criticizes." Pravda ↗ Aktuality.sk ↗

KDH is demanding that the minister immediately stop the preparation of the commission. According to SITA, Vice-Chairman of Progressive Slovakia Ivan Korčok said that Blanár is negotiating with those who bombed a children's hospital in Ukraine at night. Blanár himself says that Slovakia is pursuing a policy "on all world sides" and maintains dialogue with all countries. Meanwhile, the meeting took place on a day when Russia attacked Kyiv for almost nine hours and, according to Ukrainian authorities, the city counted at least sixteen dead. SITA ↗ TASR ↗

Commentator of .týždeň Marína Gálisová added what is not heard in agency reports. According to her, the commission should have disappeared already after the beginning of the full-scale war, from which it has not met even once, and its chairman was, according to her, Richard Sulík. .týždeň ↗

Commercial register: "the scope did not change," claims Susko

• 21.08.A data protection expert turned Susko's defense around. Jakub Berthoty tells Denník N that the problem is not whether the scope of published data changed, but that the state broadly published absolutely everything in the document collection. The dispute thus shifts from the question "what is new" to whether such broad publication is even justifiable. Denník N ↗

The new commercial register portal, which the government launched based on a new law, according to Denník N made available documents from the document collection including ID numbers, signatures, and citizen ID card numbers of owners and managers of companies. Security analysts according to the same newspaper warn that this significantly facilitates identity theft, and in a survey among business owners it was heard that it is a complete disaster. Denník N ↗

Susko answered that the scope of disclosed data did not change and that the public nature of the commercial register is no novelty, because the document collection could be viewed before directly at the register. The Ministry added that the register cannot itself decide which parts of the document it will publish, because the law requires immediate publication, and that the Personal Data Protection Office did not raise objections to the preparation of the amendment. SITA ↗ Trend ↗

Critics point precisely to that verb "to view." A lawyer contacted by Startitup says that an ID number or home address do not belong among the data that the register publishes, and that the problem arose in documents from the document collection. The Ministry claims it had no choice. The difference between going to the filing office and mass downloading remotely is what they criticize the minister for, and it gets lost in the phrase "the scope did not change." Startitup ↗ HN ↗

Justice: commissions, three-party form, and disciplinary action

The Association for Open Justice pointed out that the government on August 19 approved a draft law on judicial trainees, which also included the abolition of independent judicial rating commissions. According to the association, evaluation would pass to the heads of collegiums of higher courts, that is, to judges who at the same time decide on appeals against the decisions of those being evaluated. The association claims that the change was inserted into the proposal without justification and without expert discussion. Aktuality.sk ↗

Aktuality also brought a reaction from a couple to whom Interior Minister Matúš Šutaj Eštok blocked the registration of a same-sex union concluded abroad. According to a lawyer they contacted, the three-party form signed shortly after the minister's social media video is a demonstration of political power aimed at deterring other couples. Aktuality.sk ↗ Startitup ↗

And following the murder of Zuzana from Gelnica, the supervising prosecutor also faces disciplinary proceedings at the Supreme Administrative Court; the proposal was filed by the Košice regional prosecutor. General Prosecutor Maroš Žilinka said in July that the investigation was absolutely mishandled from the beginning and removed the leading prosecutors of the district prosecutor's office in Spišská Nová Ves from their positions. The husband murdered Zuzana eleven days after the court released him on a suspended sentence. ta3 ↗ Aktuality.sk ↗

Read also: Murder in Gelnica and dispute about where the system failed

Survey: between Smer and PS is 0.7 points

• 21.08.In the afternoon a second survey was released that painted a different parliament. The Center for Social Research at Infostat gives Smer 20.4 percent and Progressive Slovakia 18.6, thus a gap of 1.8 points instead of 0.7. Behind them are SaS with 9.8, Hlas with 8.9, Republika with 8.1, KDH with 7.9, Movement Slovakia with 6.6, Democrats with 6.0 and Alliance with 5.8 percent — nine parties would make it to parliament and SNS with 2.9 percent would fall out more significantly than in the SANEP survey. Pravda ↗Nový Čas ↗
• 21.08.The difference between the two figures is not a trend, but method and timing of collection. Infostat collected from August 3 to 7 by personal interviews on a sample of 1,046 people, SANEP from August 12 to 18 online on a sample of 2,300. The more recently published survey is thus older and smaller — which is precisely why you cannot read a trend from two surveys on one day. Pravda ↗

According to an August SANEP survey for ta3, Smer would win the elections with 19.2 percent ahead of Progressive Slovakia with 18.5 percent. Third-place Republika improved to 12.2 percent, eight parties would make it to parliament including KDH with 6.4 and Democrats with 5.3 percent, SNS with 4.6 percent would stay out of parliament. The collection took place from August 12 to 18 on a sample of 2,300 respondents using the CAWI method, with a margin of 1.5 percentage points. STVR ↗ ta3 ↗

In leader trustworthiness, Fico remained first with 40 percent, followed by Milan Uhrík with 36 and Michal Šimečka with 35 percent. The difference is in distrust, which 47 percent of those surveyed expressed toward Fico and 54 percent toward Šimečka. 26 percent trust Hlas chairman Šutaj Eštok and 57 percent of respondents distrust him. Pravda ↗

From the same figures, the editorial offices chose opposite sentences. Pravda headlined that PS is approaching the leading Smer and Hlas is losing, ta3 that Smer keeps PS behind it. STVR emphasized that around the electability threshold are three parties, meaning the composition of parliament would be decided by fractions of a point. Aktuality meanwhile described how Fico almost ignores the autumn elections in the regions and instead of traveling the country sends videos from vacation. Pravda ↗ Aktuality.sk ↗

On the opposition side, Ivan Korčok is resolving his compensation. After money for work with the movement came to him through his wife's company, he is founding his own company in which he will be the sole partner and director. Pravda ↗

Read also: Korčok was paid through his wife's company

Taraba: criminal complaint and an empty chair at government

• 21.08.A finding from the Supreme Audit Office was added to the ministerial dispute — and the ministry called it lobbying. The SAO found that the absorption of EU funds from the LIFE program for 2021 to 2027 is threatened: until the end of the audit in May, the ministry had not concluded a single co-financing agreement, although some projects had already been approved by the European Commission, and none of the five million euros in the 2026 budget was used. The money could go to other member states. TASR ↗Štandard ↗
• 21.08.Taraba's ministry's response was not substantive, but personal. The environment ministry called the SAO report lobbying in favor of NGOs — thus an attack, not a finding. STVR ↗

Environment Minister Tomáš Taraba announced on Thursday that he had filed a criminal complaint due to suspicion that an attempt came from outside to obstruct an audit of timber logging on Muránska Planina. The Initiative We Are the Forest has long warned that logging there is taking place in habitats of the capercaillie in the second-strictest protected zone. Aktuality.sk ↗

The day before, the ministry had no representation at the first government meeting after the summer break, although it has three state secretaries. According to SME, all three are loyal to SNS, which has been calling for Taraba's departure since early summer, and the minister removed State Secretary Filip Kuffa on the same day from the head of the delimitation commission and the commission for state pre-emptive rights. Taraba claims that it was not necessary to authorize someone to represent it. SME ↗

That it's not just a ministerial dispute was shown by an interview in Pravda. The head of the parliamentary health committee Vladimír Baláž from Smer openly speaks in it about Taraba's future and about the hot autumn ahead for the coalition. Pravda ↗

State money: three priorities and a budget that won't please anyone

Fico set three budgetary priorities for next year: fighting drought, a new nuclear source, and transport. Finance Minister Ladislav Kamenický speaks of hundreds of millions of euros and at the same time that the government must maintain the social standard of ordinary people. STVR ↗

Council for Budget Responsibility member Martin Šuster warned that the government will have to find several hundred million euros in addition to over one billion that it needs to save to meet its own goals. Economist Martin Hudcovský from the Slovak Academy of Sciences also reminds that precisely these areas have been chronically underfunded and have the greatest potential to bring growth. Baláž admits to Pravda that in the fall there will also be things in the budget that Smer won't like, and that everyone will be somewhat dissatisfied. STVR ↗ Pravda ↗

Opposition MP Oskar Dvořák called on the Prime Minister and the Finance and Health Ministers to include money in the budget for the completion of four unfinished hospitals, because the recovery plan finances only shell construction and ends in August. Denník N added a comparison to that, that the Czech government is doing significantly better and took a two-week vacation while Fico took six weeks and only now started on the budget. SME ↗ Denník N ↗

Under the radar

• 21.08.In the Nitra case, charges were filed. An investigator brought charges against four people in connection with an attack on an Indian citizen; at the time of the morning edition they had only been detained. Aktuality.sk ↗
• 21.08.KDH files criminal complaint over falsification of Slovak origin of food. According to the movement, imported vegetables are labeled as Slovak. Aktuality.sk ↗
• 21.08.Dairy farmers speak of a milk crisis. The decline in the purchase price of cow's milk, according to them, threatens Slovak farms. HN ↗
• 21.08.After Wednesday's supercell in Bratislava, insurance companies report hundreds of claims and the number of reports continues to rise. HN ↗

KDH claims that the Health Ministry is preparing a model in which the Penta and Agel groups would take over part of the ambulance services without public tender. A tender worth two billion euros for six years fell through in August 2025 due to suspicions of pre-selected winners and the current operators have been operating on mandates since then. Minister Kamil Šaško said on August 9 that he would present the proposal to the commission for emergency health care within weeks, but according to Pravda did not respond to KDH's Thursday press conference. Štandard ↗ Pravda ↗

Denník N described the case of Sofie, whose newborn screening revealed spinal muscular atrophy. Her parents submitted a request for reimbursement of Zolgensma on March 26 and it has since been stuck in a dispute between the ministry and insurance companies. Denník N ↗

Aktuality found two customer service points of the toll system in Skalité two hundred meters apart. The National Highway Company now pays according to a published contract amendment 364 thousand euros per year for that, thus 1.8 million for five years, and when asked how many customers these places have, neither NDS nor the operator Skytoll, which belongs to the PPF group, responded. Aktuality.sk ↗

Police in Operation Prejudice detained four juveniles suspected of attacking Indian students in Nitra on August 1 and conducted home searches at three locations. One of the victims suffered serious injuries. Aktuality.sk ↗ HN ↗

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