What Slovakia is writing about: The General Prosecutor’s Office closes the MiG case, Fico calls a press conference against Žilinka. The coalition recalculates its MPs

On Thursday, the General Prosecutor’s Office closed the case concerning the donation of MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine, finding that the conduct of the police and the Bratislava Regional Prosecutor’s Office had been lawful. Prime Minister Robert Fico responded by attacking Prosecutor General Maroš Žilinka; for Friday, he called a press conference titled “The Prosecutor General of the Slovak Republic is a political puppet in the hands of the opposition” and said that Žilinka was giving the coalition reasons for “fundamental statutory interventions in the functioning of the prosecution service”. On the same day, the coalition’s parliamentary arithmetic became more complicated: a blocking group is taking shape in the parliamentary benches around outgoing Environment Minister Tomáš Taraba, while State Secretary Filip Kuffa, whom SNS is proposing as his successor, is filing a criminal complaint against an unknown perpetrator and criticizing Taraba’s remarks.

The Prosecutor’s Office closes the MiG case. Fico calls a press conference against the Prosecutor General

The General Prosecutor’s Office reviewed the decisions of the police and the Bratislava Regional Prosecutor’s Office in the case concerning the donation of MiG-29 fighter aircraft, KUB launchers and a radar station to Ukraine, and concluded that they had been correct and lawful. The lawfulness was assessed by the director of the General Prosecutor’s Office’s Serious Crime Department; the review concerned the police investigator’s decision of 31 October 2025 to discontinue the criminal proceedings and the Regional Prosecutor’s decision of 26 January 2026 rejecting the complainant’s appeal. SME ↗ Pravda ↗

The Ministry of Defence submitted the request for review. Aktuality was the only outlet to analyse the decision itself and point out a detail absent from the usual reports: the ministry’s main objection was that Eduard Heger’s caretaker government had had no right to sign an international treaty donating military equipment without parliament’s consent. According to Aktuality, Prosecutor Oliver Janíček replied that the procedure complied with the rules for concluding international treaties approved by the government in a resolution in 2009 — when Robert Fico was prime minister — and with President Rudolf Schuster’s 2001 decision transferring the authority to negotiate certain treaties to the government. Aktuality ↗

The difference in framing was immediately apparent. Teraz and STVR presented the matter factually as the closure of the case STVR ↗, while ta3 based its headline on Fico’s statement about an “opposition political puppet” ta3 ↗, and Aktuality on the prime minister’s threat of interventions in the functioning of the General Prosecutor’s Office Aktuality ↗. In response, Fico said that Žilinka “confirms on a daily basis that he is beholden to his political masters in the opposition”, and called a Friday morning press conference titled “The Prosecutor General of the Slovak Republic is a political puppet in the hands of the opposition”. Pravda ↗

Former Defence Minister Jaroslav Naď, who was a member of Heger’s government when the equipment was donated, responded that the government had acted in accordance with Slovak and international law and the UN Charter, which, he said, establishes a duty to help an attacked country. Teraz ↗ SME ↗

It is worth clarifying what the decision means at this stage, and what it does not: the Prosecutor’s Office assessed the lawfulness of the actions of the bodies active in criminal proceedings, meaning that the proceedings had been discontinued correctly. It is not a court judgment, and Fico’s announced press conference suggests that the dispute over the Prosecutor’s Office itself is not over.

A blocking group is taking shape around Taraba, and the coalition is recalculating its MPs

The day’s second thread is arithmetic. According to two independent sources cited by SME, State Secretary at the Ministry of Investment Radomír Šalitroš wants to return to the National Council and has already informed the prime minister of his intention. SME ↗ His minister Samuel Migaľ refused to confirm or deny it Teraz ↗, so for now it is information from sources, not an announced decision.

SME’s commentary framed it most sharply: it said that the Smer, Hlas and SNS coalition had already lost its parliamentary majority and that instead of a three-party coalition, one should speak of a “five-party patchwork”. Besides Taraba himself, the commentary places MPs Ján Ferenčák and Roman Slyško in this group, which Šalitroš is supposed to strengthen. A trio around Rudolf Huliak — Roman Malatinec, Ivan Ševčík and Pavel Ľupták — already stands alongside it. The same commentary also dampens the opposition’s expectations: this does not mean that Fico will fail to complete his term, because neither group broke away over policy disagreements. SME ↗ Hospodárske noviny and Denník N presented it more cautiously, as a risk of losing the majority rather than an accomplished fact Hospodárske noviny ↗ Denník N ↗. Štandard told the same story from the angle that Danko had discussed Šalitroš directly with Fico and that the prime minister feared for his majority — while noting that this was Kuffa’s claim Štandard ↗.

Taraba himself has been saying this openly since the weekend: on the Na telo programme, he declared that MP Slyško would leave the Hlas parliamentary group after his return and that the coalition would thereby lose its majority. TV Markíza ↗ SITA ↗ Slyško himself says only that they discussed the next steps in Hlas and reached an agreement, while the party leadership rejects his departure. Pravda ↗ Postoj ↗

The coalition does not deny it; it simply presents it differently. Deputy Speaker Tibor Gašpar said that he was counting on a possible new group around Taraba and believed it would support the budget, adding that if it blocked proceedings, the coalition would have to negotiate with it. Hospodárske noviny ↗ ta3 ↗ SNS parliamentary group chair Roman Michelko went further, telling Expres that it was possible to govern with 76 MPs and that approving the budget was what mattered. Expres ↗ Seventy-six is the smallest possible majority in a 150-member parliament — the threshold below which the government must reach an agreement before every vote.

Split in SNS: Kuffa files a criminal complaint against an unknown perpetrator and criticizes Taraba

The third thread shows how quickly the situation is changing. On Monday, after meeting the prime minister, Filip Kuffa confirmed that he remained SNS’s nominee to replace Taraba. On Thursday, he announced that he was filing a criminal complaint against an unknown perpetrator, while criticizing remarks made by Environment Minister Taraba about him and his family. Pravda ↗ SME ↗

The newsrooms differed in how they framed it. Ta3 called it the culmination of the split at the ministry ta3 ↗, Aktuality narrowed its headline to Taraba’s remarks about Kuffa Aktuality ↗, and Denník N placed the entire dispute in the context of Kuffa’s appointment failing to advance even after Danko’s meeting with Fico, with both sides reaching the brink. Denník N ↗ According to Aktuality, Kuffa also claims that the possible return of Šalitroš is already worrying the prime minister. Aktuality ↗

The dispute is being conducted by a party that, according to Ipsos’s Thursday poll for Denník N, would not make it into parliament: SNS has 2.2 percent. Progressive Slovakia would win the election with 19 percent, ahead of Smer with 16.9 and Republika with 12.8 percent. Hlas fell to 6.6 percent, its historic low in this agency’s polling. Ipsos collected the data from 18 to 22 September from a sample of 1,030 respondents. Pravda ↗ Aktuality ↗

State finances: the government will run a deficit, and there is still no budget agreement

The budget remains unresolved, and the coalition contradicts itself in describing it. Over the weekend, Smer parliamentary group chair Ján Richter said that the proposal was 99 percent ready, while SNS chair Andrej Danko denied this, saying that the public was being misled because there was no final agreement in the coalition council. On Wednesday, the government at least agreed that it would run a deficit next year. Postoj points out that, given the current level of debt, a balanced budget should be approved under the 2011 constitutional law on budget responsibility, and that Smer MPs, including Robert Fico, also voted for that law at the time. Postoj ↗

The transaction tax also remains unresolved, even though the prime minister wanted to abolish it as recently as the end of August. According to Gašpar, the tax will not be abolished altogether and will at most be adjusted; SNS chair Danko called this confusing, saying “even I am beginning to find it confusing”, and linked SNS’s support for the budget to the tax’s fate. TV Markíza ↗ Pravda ↗

On social policy, Ján Richter meanwhile assured people that the government would provide thirteenth pensions next year as well and announced pay rises Hospodárske noviny ↗, while Labour Minister Erik Tomáš presented Hlas’s package of social legislation Hospodárske noviny ↗. According to STVR, pension reform is not currently in the pipeline, but the coalition admits that pensions could be increased for a selected group of seniors. STVR ↗

Under the radar

Spray-painted messages have appeared on the fence beside the Kukurica building in Bratislava, which is intended to house the Ministry of Defence. Defence Minister Robert Kaliňák had cited protection against graffiti artists as one of the reasons why the wall, costing €770,000, was given a brick-effect surface. ta3 ↗

In Kecerovce, 63 candidates have registered for the local elections for 11 council seats, with several sharing the same names — the list contains twenty-two Gábors, nine Vidličkas and six Ďuraškas, so voters will distinguish them by age, occupation or party affiliation. Pravda ↗

According to experts, the building of the Slovak National Museum is moving, and the opposition SaS is calling for an immediate solution. SITA ↗ KDH has presented a package of anti-gambling measures, including advertising regulation and higher levies, and launched a petition in support of it SITA ↗; it also warned that the Slovak economy is twice as dependent on imports of critical raw materials as the European Union average. Aktuality ↗

Denník N also covered an issue that will drag on for longer: a co-author of the Vision 2040 claims that local-government reform cannot be postponed because small municipalities are unable even to enforce compliance with the law. Denník N ↗

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