Tuesday, 25 November — MPs returned to the debating chamber after a weeks-long break and wasted no time turning up the temperature. The session opened with enough political heat to register as its own weather event.
Bratislava had been under a brief snow alert — promptly cancelled. Whether that was down to shifting meteorology or the atmosphere inside parliament is still up for debate.
Welcome to Today in Slovakia.
MPs rolled back into the chamber on Tuesday with a heavy lift ahead: roughly 150 agenda points to chew through in the final session of the year. Despite the mountain of business — including several opposition proposals and a stack of no-confidence motions against individual ministers and even the government that have been sitting for months — the coalition used its numbers to set the tone. Their move: push all of that aside and open with a debate and vote on whether to fast-track Interior Minister Matúš Šutaj Eštok’s plan to abolish the Whistleblowers Protection Office (ÚOO).
Today was all about procedure — from early afternoon until just before midnight. Tomorrow, and likely the rest of the week, will be about the bill itself. Expect volleys from the opposition; expect near-silence from the coalition (as per today).
So, what did you miss if you weren’t glued to the stream?
MPs in the debating chamber on 25 November 2025. (source: TASR – Jaroslav Novák)
A minute’s silence for the two minors who died in a fire in the Roma settlement of Mašličkovo earlier this month. Worth noting: the parliamentary human rights and minorities committee, where the fire was due to be discussed on Monday, was blocked by the coalition — along with a debate on the state of the Foreigners’ Police in Bratislava.
The national anthem.
A binful of opposition proposals, dumped by coalition MPs — at least for Tuesday’s sitting. Among them: a resolution requiring the government to seek a confidence vote after activation of the highest debt-brake sanctions, and a resolution condemning the growing “normalisation” of hate speech, misogyny and disrespect towards women, and calling for stronger prevention of gender-based violence. (N.B.: 25 November is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women — hence so many orange ribbons on lapels.)
Sustained criticism of Interior Minister Šutaj Eštok, who spent the day briefly introducing his fast-track proposal and then doing everything possible not to listen to opposition MPs. He was wandering around the chamber — including, at one point, hiding under a balcony to avoid cameras — was repeatedly mocked from the lectern.
A literary interlude: Opposition MP Jozef Pročko invoked George Orwell, citing “equal and more equal pigs” in reference to the coalition. He also staged a minute of silence for the “late electronic mailbox of the interior minister” — a jab at Šutaj Eštok’s months-long failure to check it, which resulted in a sizeable penalty after he insulted a group of police investigators. “May its memory be honoured,” Pročko quipped. He went on to pitch alternative names for the coalition’s planned replacement office: ÚPONĽ (Office for the Protection of Our People), TODP (Secret Organisation of Hard Workers), and the winning acronym, AFPTB — short for Ako Fico prikáže, tak bude (Whatever Fico orders, that’s what will happen).
Raise your hand: Opposition MP Zuzana Števulová confronted the minister directly — “Are you not ashamed?” She took aim at him for prioritising his bill while issues such as petty theft — widely flagged across the country — were pushed aside. Her remarks targeting the minister prompted Deputy Speaker Tibor Gašpar (Smer), who faces serious criminal charges, to call a five-minute break to “calm things down”. The standout moment: Števulová asked MPs whether they felt “prenesenú hanbu” — second-hand shame for the minister. She raised her hand; opposition colleagues followed.
A culinary metaphor involving the correct preparation of duck — a plea that, like rushed duck-baking, rushed legislation rarely ends well. The implication: the ÚOO bill is severely undercooked.
Fare-dodging coalition? Opposition MP Zuzana Meszterová joked that it’s a good thing the coalition doesn’t use public transport — because, in her view, they’d be fare-dodging, and at the first fine they’d try to abolish the bus service altogether and have everyone walking. Such, she said, is the level of absurdity in the push to force through a fast-track legislative procedure.
Finally: The debate wrapped shortly before 23:30, cutting off opposition leader Michal Šimečka and a visibly irritated MP Alojz Hlina, before the coalition voted through the fast-track procedure — despite none of the formal conditions for fast-tracking being met.
WHAT THE SLOVAK SPECTATOR HAD ON TUESDAY
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Fico’s files?
Demokrati chair Jaroslav Naď (source: SITA)
Bratislava is buzzing after the opposition Demokrati accused PM Robert Fico of once again treating the Financial Administration like his in-house dirt-digging squad. The party says it has an internal order from tax chief — and Smer nominee — Jozef Kiss, directing investigators to sift through the family of opposition leader Michal Šimečka.
Deep dive, or deep state? The alleged assignment didn’t stop with NGO Projekt Fórum, run by Šimečka’s mother. Demokrati say Kiss expanded it to include reports on Šimečka’s father, sister and partner, with access to population registries — a move that critics say echoes the infamous President Andrej Kiska “lustration” play from Fico’s earlier government.
Pushback comes fast: The Financial Administration calls the leaked document a fake, dismisses the story as a “disinformation op”, and blames a suspended employee for the supposed fabrication. Slovakia’s intelligence service, SIS, sticks to its usual script — no comment, classified.
Political déjà vu: For long-time Slovakia watchers, the pattern is familiar. From the Kiska probe to the 2016 Igor Matovič document drop, Smer governments have repeatedly faced accusations of weaponising state institutions for political gain. Fico himself was charged in connection with this. The general prosecutor helped Fico and dropped the charges, but the political shadow remains.
Old ghost: Before 2018, police officer Pavol Vorobjov admitted to running lustrations on more than 28 journalists and their family members — including murdered reporter Ján Kuciak, notes SME. He told the court that the order came from former police chief Tibor Gašpar, now a lawmaker for Smer. Vorobjov later withdrew the accusation, claiming he no longer remembered the circumstances.
In other news
Culture Ministry’s top man Lukáš Machala is unimpressed with the state broadcaster’s holiday programming. His gripe? STVR’s Dvojka plans to air the traditional Vienna Philharmonic New Year’s Concert instead of a Slovak performance. “It bothers me a bit, personally,” Machala sniffed — kicking off an unexpectedly patriotic row over 1 January TV schedules. (Denník N)
Slovakia’s first participation in a global poll on violence against women found 9 percent faced abuse and 5 percent sexual harassment in the past year, with women aged 18–24 reporting the highest risk.
EU affairs parliamentary committee chair Ján Ferenčák (Hlas) says he only learned from the media that his own party wants to remove him and, until MPs vote on the motion, he’s refusing to register for votes — leaving the fragile coalition on 78 MPs. He insists the move is retaliation for past dissent, while Hlas argues it simply wants to replace him with former diplomat and deputy prime minister Peter Kmec.
An investigation by the Ján Kuciak Centre and Russia’s The Insider found Slovak-made Grand Power firearms still on sale in Russia despite sanctions — with some weapons allegedly reaching the country illegally, even though earlier licensed production in Nizhny Novgorod was permitted before 2022. Grand Power insists it has nothing to do with any post-sanctions transfers. (ICJK)
Speaker Richard Raši (Hlas) has pencilled in the no-confidence vote in Transport Minister Jozef Ráž (Smer) for 10:00 on Monday, 1 December. The motion to oust Ráž comes from the opposition benches — MPs from the Slovensko – Za ľudí parliamentary group.
Heavy snowfall has toppled over 200 trees at Košice Zoo — with more still coming down — forcing the zoo to remain closed after fences, including electric enclosures, collapsed under the weight. Dozens of zoo staff, city civil protection teams, arborists and municipal forest workers are scrambling to clear the damage. (TASR)
Košice-based GymBeam — a major central European sports-nutrition retailer — has pulled in €110 million to ramp up expansion, including buying a manufacturing plant in Germany and kitting out warehouses in Italy and Slovakia with robots. The cash haul comes despite a profit dip after a year of spending big to break deeper into western Europe. (Index)
A crowd gathered outside Slovakia’s parliament in Bratislava on Tuesday evening, as protesters rallied against the government’s plan to overhaul the Whistleblower Protection Office and replace it with a new body. The demonstration was called by the extra-parliamentary Demokrati party, with opposition heavyweights Progressive Slovakia, SaS and KDH also joining the push. (source: SME – Jozef Jakubčo)
THE BRIGHT SIDE
BOOM BACK: The Prodigy are set to roar into Pohoda’s 30th anniversary, a decade after headlining its 20th — and they’ll be closing the festival again, fresh off doing the same at Glastonbury.
NIGHT OUT: NGO Vagus is rolling out another edition of its annual Night Out on Thursday — an overnight sleep-out across multiple cities, including Bratislava, spotlighting rising poverty and homelessness. No need to camp out to take part: organisers say you can drop by without staying the night, join in from your own garden or balcony (#Nocvonku2025), or chip in with a donation.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: The American Center in Banská Bystrica marked its 20th anniversary, celebrating two decades of cultural and educational links between Slovaks and the US. Deputy US Ambassador Heather Rogers hailed the centre as a model of people-to-people diplomacy and part of a global network of American Spaces.
Wednesday, 26 November — What to expect
Government meeting in Vyšný Orlík, north-eastern Slovakia
PM Robert Fico should announce whether he’ll dismiss his national security adviser Miroslav Lajčák after his name surfaced in the Epstein files
Parliament resumes session
Disciplinary hearing for Specialised Criminal Court chief judge Michal Truban
WEDNESDAY’S FRONT PAGES
SME: The older generation is pricing young people out of housing.
Denník N: Watch out, drone!
Pravda: Hundreds of new speed cameras to be installed — local authorities to enforce speed limits.
Hospodárske noviny: Ryanair–Wizz Air showdown: flight numbers set to jump by 90 percent.
Wednesday weather: Cloudy and rainy, turning to snow in the west and Žilina, with fewer showers by the afternoon and occasional snowdrifts. Daytime temperatures –1°C to 9°C. (SHMÚ)
Name day: Kornel.
You’re invited! Join experts on Thursday, 27 November, from 11:30 to 14:00 at the Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Comenius University (Room B 120, Mlynské luhy 4, Bratislava) for a discussion on “The EU-Mercosur Agreement: Pathway to Shared Prosperity in a Challenging Global Context”. The event, organised by the Embassy of Brazil, is free to attend.
That’s all from Today in Slovakia. We’ll meet back here tomorrow.
P.S. If you have suggestions on how our news overview can be improved, you can reach us at editorial@spectator.sk.
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