V4 summit: "we're back," but with question marks
Individual newsrooms interpreted the tone of the summit differently. Pravda and the daily Štandard picked up Fico's confident line "we want to be very strong again," and Nový Čas wrote in a similar spirit. Štandard ↗ta3 emphasized that the prime ministers "needed only one hour to reach understanding." ta3 ↗ SME added an ironic commentary on the meeting titled "D'Artagnan's return to Visegrád." SME ↗ Pravda, for its part, noted the amusing confusion during the joint photograph, when the prime ministers couldn't find their places. Pravda ↗
Beneath the declarations, however, the limits of the restart also became visible. After taking office, Magyar did withdraw Hungary's veto on opening accession negotiations with Ukraine, in exchange for an agreement on the rights of ethnic Hungarians, but on Tuesday his government was the only one out of 27 states to block a joint letter meant to confirm progress in the accession negotiations of Kyiv and Chișinău. According to the magazine Politico, cited by TASR, Magyar was not against opening the negotiations, but requested a slower pace and the removal of the words "as soon as possible." So it was not a renewal of Orbán's veto, but rather a slowing of the pace and the wording of the joint European position. Teraz.sk ↗ According to SME, the sensitive issue of the Beneš decrees also remained in the background, with attention shifting instead to the planned high-speed rail line between Bratislava and Budapest. SME ↗
Elections on October 24 and the start of the campaign
The combined municipal and regional elections will take place on October 24, Raši announced, officially launching the election campaign. Denník N ↗ Seven candidates are so far vying for the post of Bratislava mayor, including Transport Minister Jozef Ráž. SITA ↗The Slovak National Party is still hesitating over nominating Zdenko Čambal for mayor, and the question of who would take his parliamentary seat if he were to move also remains open. Aktuality.sk ↗ Meanwhile, the president signed an amendment to the law on municipal establishment, which also affects Košice. SME ↗
Courts and ministers under pressure
The most questions were raised by the case of former special prosecutor Dušan Kováčik. According to ta3, judge Juraj Kliment pointed to a suspicion that Kováčik's case may have been decided by an illegally composed panel. ta3 ↗ In the case of the so-called "čurillovci," a prosecutor, according to SME, halted an attempt by the inspection service to examine their phones and warned against "fishing for evidence." SME ↗Several ministers also found themselves under pressure. Minister of Tourism and Sport Rudolf Huliak, after losing a dispute, apologized to environmentalist Marián Hletko for false statements and paid him thousands of euros in damages. ta3 ↗ Labor Minister Erik Tomáš, meanwhile, was addressed by labor inspectors in an open letter warning that if he does not act, they will "protect themselves." SME ↗
State money and what escaped attention
From the economy, a chart drew attention showing that since 2025 almost 50,000 self-employed people have ceased business activity. Denník N ↗ The National Bank of Slovakia links this to the impact of fiscal consolidation and warns that some of them have moved into the grey economy. SME ↗ At the same time, the company Eset obtained another approval opinion for its new campus in Bratislava's Patrónka district. Pravda ↗A change in the army also went largely unnoticed. Slovakia deployed military reservists to assist professional soldiers for the first time, raising the question of whether it will eventually have more reserve soldiers than professional ones. Pravda ↗
What hotinfo is watching
- Whether the V4 "restart" translates into concrete steps — the fate of the Bratislava–Budapest high-speed rail line and Hungary's stance on Ukraine's accession at next week's talks in Brussels.
- The start of the campaign ahead of the October 24 elections and the final nominations for Bratislava mayor.
- How the court will rule on the objection concerning the illegally composed panel in the Kováčik case.
- Whether the inspection service gains access to the phones of the "čurillovci" and how the prosecutor's office will explain blocking this procedure.
- The trend in the number of self-employed people and the National Bank of Slovakia's response to the shift of some of them into the grey economy.
- Further approval steps for the Eset campus in Patrónka.
