Mário Boroš, 59, has been part of the Slovak education system for 36 years – the equivalent of roughly 30,000 hours of teaching subjects. His wife, Martina, 46, a biology, geography, and English teacher, has been teaching for 25 years.
At the end of July, they handed over the keys to their three-room flat. The couple had decided to leave Slovakia with their children.
“It gave us a huge stomach ache, and I kept asking myself whether it wasn’t just some sort of delusion,” Mário recalls of the period since March, when the family resolved to move permanently to a village near Břeclav in the Czech Republic.
They had long dreamed of living in a house, as their flat in Bratislava’s Ružinov borough was small for a family of six. Years of searching for an affordable home near the capital were fruitless, with property prices rising relentlessly.
“We realised we would have to sell two flats in Ružinov,” says Martina. They looked in Myjava and the Záhorie region in western Slovakia, but without success.
When Smer, Hlas, and SNS formed the government in 2023, the idea of leaving resurfaced. After Prime Minister Robert Fico’s visit to Moscow and meeting with Vladimir Putin at the end of 2024, the couple began attending protests regularly. This spring, they decided to start looking for a home outside Slovakia.
“If these scoundrels weren’t in power, we would probably still be in our little flat in Ružinov,” says Martina.
“I want to live in a country that wants to be part of the European Union – and acts like it – that doesn’t bow to Russia, doesn’t praise Putin, and remembers its past,” she adds.
Unlike doctors and nurses, who most often leave Slovakia for the Czech Republic in search of better working conditions, teachers face additional hurdles. To teach in the Czech Republic, they must pass a state language exam. Those who graduated in Slovakia must also have their qualifications formally recognised.
“We decided to go for it,’ says Martina.
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Czech dictionary in hand
“It’s not just different names for even and odd numbers,” says Mário, referring to the terminology – often hard to remember – he will need to use in class from September.
“Many of us Slovaks think we know Czech – but believe me, we don’t,” he continues. He now keeps a Czech dictionary close at hand.
“The language has countless tiny differences you wouldn’t even notice.”