Return to homeCountry Reports: https://www.countryreports.org/country/Slovakia.htm
Slovakia.org: http://www.slovakia.org/history1.htm
Tourism: www.slovakemb.com
Travel Docs: http://www.traveldocs.com/sk/index.htm Slovakia borders Poland to the north, Ukraine to
the east, Hungary to the south, Austria and the Czech Republic to
the west. Slovaks are of Slav origin and are the predominant ethnic
group, accounting for 86 percent in the population of 5.4 million.
Ethnic Hungarians account for 10 percent of the population.
Corruption and joblessness of 17.6 percent were seen as its main
economic problems in 2002.
4800BC-4600BC More than 150 large
temples, constructed between during this period, were unearthed in
fields and cities in Germany, Austria and Slovakia in 2002-2005. A
village at Aythra, near Leipzig in eastern Germany, was home to some
300 people living in up to 20 large buildings around the temple.
(AP, 6/12/05)
623-658 The first state of the Slavs living on the
Middle Danube was Samo's Realm, a tribal confederation existing
between 623 and 658. It encompassed the territories of Moravia,
Slovakia, Lower Austria, Carantania, Sorbia at the Elbe, and
probably also Bohemia, which lies between Sorbia and other parts of
the realm.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Moravia)
833-900 Great Moravia was founded when Mojmir I
unified two neighboring states by force, referred to in modern
historiography as the "Principality of Nitra" and the "Principality
of Moravia". The Slavic state existed in Central Europe from the 9th
century to the early 10th century.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Moravia)
1863 The Matica Slovenska was
founded as a cultural organization and nurtured the dream of Slovak
independence.
(WSJ, 4/26/96, p.A-11)
1892 A green steel Elizabeth
bridge across the Danube connected Komarom in Hungary to Komarno in
Slovakia, both part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Its nearby twin
was built in 1910 and rebuilt after detonation by Nazi German troops
during World War II.
(AFP, 11/1/18)
1918 Oct 30, Slovakia asked for
the creation of Czechoslovakian state. Slovaks joined the Czechs to
form Czechoslovakia. During World War II, Slovakia existed as puppet
state of Nazi-run Germany.
(MC, 10/30/01)(AP, 9/21/02)
1938 Sep 29, British, French,
German and Italian leaders signed the Munich Agreement, which was
aimed at appeasing Adolf Hitler by allowing Nazi annexation of
Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland, inhabited by a German-speaking
minority. The treaty ceded three areas of Czechoslovakia to other
powers: the Sudetenland was annexed into Germany, the Teschen
district was given to Poland, and parts of Slovakia went to Hungary.
British PM Neville Chamberlain gained a brief peace agreement from
Hitler at Munich and without consulting the Czechs agreed that Nazi
forces could occupy Sudetenland. Some mark this "appeasement policy"
as the decisive event of the century. Chamberlain predicted "peace
in our time." French PM Edouard Daladier was very depressed from the
meeting. In 1980 Telford Taylor published "Munich: The Price of
Peace." It is a detailed political & diplomatic history of the
1930's in Europe, culminating in the Munich conference. Taylor later
helped write the rules for Nuremberg Trials. In 2008 David Vaughan
authored “Battle for the Airwaves: Radio and the 1938 Munich
Crises.”
(http://www.humboldt.edu/~rescuers/book/Chlup/chluplinks/munich.html)(SFC,
6/9/96, Z1 p.5)(SFC, 6/16/96, Z1 p.6)(WSJ, 6/8/98, p.A21)(AP,
9/29/06)(SFC, 5/26/98, p.B2)(Econ, 10/11/08, p.115)
1939 Mar 9, Czech President
Emil Hacha ousted pro-German Joseph Tiso as the Premier of Slovakia
in order to preserve Czech unity.
(Historynet, 3/9/98)
1939 Mar 15, Germany occupied
Bohemia and Moravia, Czechoslovakia. Slovakia became
independent
(Voruta #27-28, Jul 1996, p.2)(WSJ, 12/12/96,
p.A13)(HN, 3/15/98)(MC, 3/15/02)
1939 Mar, Germany set up a
puppet regime. The Jewish community was estimated to number 70,000
at the start of the war. Fewer than 10,000 survived the war.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.A11)
1940-1945 The Benes decrees were issued by Pres.
Edvard Benes, head of the Czechoslovak government in exile. Part of
the decrees later dealt with the status of Germans and Hungarians in
postwar Czechoslovakia. From 1945-1948 they were used to legalize
brutal measures against the country’s German and Hungarian
populations.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bene%C5%A1_decrees)(Econ, 3/29/08,
p.67)
1942 Aug 11, Slovakian-born
Adolf Burger (1917-2016) was arrested after he was caught producing
fake baptism certificates for Jews to help them escape
transportation to Nazi death camps. In 1944 at the Sachsenhausen
concentration camp in Germany, Burger became one of 139 inmates who
were put to work forging British pound notes, a top secret plan to
destabilize Britain known as "Operation Bernhard." Burger described
his experiences in "The Commando of Counterfeiters," a 1983 memoir.
The film "The Counterfeiters" went on to win the Oscar for best
foreign film in 2008.
(AP, 12/8/16)(AFP, 12/8/16)
1944 May, Laszlo Csatary was
named chief of an internment camp at a brick factory in Kosice, a
Slovakian city under Hungarian rule, from where 12,000 Jews were
deported to Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps. In 1948 he was
convicted in absentia for war crimes in Czechoslovakia and sentenced
to death. He arrived in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia the
following year, became a Canadian citizen in 1955 and worked as an
art dealer in Montreal. He left Canada in 1997 and was arrested in
Hungary in 2012. In 2013 Csatary was indicted in Hungary for war
crimes.
(AP, 7/18/12)(AP, 6/18/13)
1944 Aug 29, The Slovak
National Uprising broke out against the Germans.
(SFC, 10/2/09, p.E5)
1944 Dec 26, In Slovakia
American OSS personnel were captured in a surprise raid by a German
intelligence unit. Slovak agent Maria Gulovich (1921-2009) helped 2
American and 2 British agents escape. In 2002 Jim Downs authored
“World War II: OSS Tragedy in Slovakia.”
(SFC, 10/2/09, p.E5)
1944 Ladislav Niznansky, a
Slovak army captain, at first supported a revolt against Nazi
occupation, but changed sides after he was captured. He then took
charge of the Slovak section of a Nazi unit, code-named Edelweiss,
that hunted resistance fighters and Jews. [see Dec 19, 2005]
(AP, 12/19/05)
1945 Jan 21, The Nazi Edelweiss
unit participated in a bloody operation against two villages in
central Slovakia as punishment for local support of Soviet-backed
rebels.
(AP, 12/19/05)
1945 Feb 7, German troops and
allied Slovak irregulars massacred 18 Jewish civilians discovered
hiding in underground bunkers at Ksina, Slovakia.
(AP, 12/19/05)
1945 Slovakia reunited with the
Czechs.
(AP, 9/21/02)
1946 Vojtech Tuka was executed.
He had been the prime minister of pro-Nazi Slovakia during the war.
(SFC, 7/25/97, p.A12)
1947 Father Jozef Tiso ruled
Slovakia while it was a Nazi state and in this year he was captured
by the Americans and executed for war crimes. During his rule 70,000
Slovakian Jews were sent to Nazi death camps.
(WSJ, 4/26/96, p.A-11)(Econ, 3/13/10, p.57)
1968 Aug 3, The Bratislava
statement conceded Czechoslovakia’s right to pursue its own path.
The conference was held in Bratislava, Slovakia, for representatives
of the communist and workers' parties of the People's Republic of
Bulgaria, the Hungarian People's Republic, the German Democratic
Republic, the Polish People's Republic, the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics, and the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic.
(WUD, 1994,
p.1687)(http://library.thinkquest.org/C001155/documents/doc41.htm)
1972 Aug 22, In Bratislava,
Slovakia, the Novy Most (New Bridge) opened over the Danube. A
section of the Old Town was bulldozed for its creation.
(Econ, 6/17/06,
p.20)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nov%C3%BD_Most_Bratislava)
1989 Nov 29, The Czechs ended
the Communist party's 40-year monopoly on power. The revolution in
Czechoslovakia was called the “Velvet Revolution” because of the
little violence.
(HFA, '96, p.18)(SFEC, 2/2/97, DB. p.34)(AP,
11/29/99)
1989 Dec 8, Communist leaders
in Czechoslovakia offered to surrender their control over the
government and accept a minority role in a coalition Cabinet.
(AP, 12/8/99)
1989 Dec 10, Czechoslovakia's
president, Gustav Husak, resigned after swearing in a coalition
cabinet in which Communists were relegated to a minority role.
(AP, 12/10/99)
1991 Feb 15, In Visegrad,
Hungary, a declaration of co-operation was signed by Poland,
Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The 4 became known as the
Visegrad countries.
(Econ, 11/22/03,
p.10S)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visegr%C3%A1d_Group)
1992 Jul 17, Slovakia's
government decreed its independence from Czechoslovakia. The
independence did not become official until January 1, 1993.
(www.slovakia.org/society-hungary2.htm)
1992 Dec 31, The Nation of
Czechoslovakia officially ended with division into two Nations:
Slovakia and the Czech Republic. When the country split, all
citizens were deemed to be either Czech or Slovak, based on their
parentage. The vast majority of the Romany living in the Czech
Republic are of Slovak descent, and they had to apply for Czech
citizenship. In 2009 Mary Haimann authored “Czechoslovakia: The
State That Failed.”
(HFA, '96, p.44)(SFC, 5/13/96, p.A-8)(Econ,
11/21/09, p.84)
1993 Jan 1, Czechoslovakia
peacefully split into two new countries, the Czech Republic and
Slovakia. The Slovak people never voted on the 1993 split with the
Czechs. When the country split, all citizens were deemed to be
either Czech or Slovak, based on their parentage. The vast majority
of the Romany living in the Czech Republic are of Slovak descent,
and they had to apply for Czech citizenship. Vladimir Meciar
(b.1942) became the premier of Slovakia and Vaclav Klaus the premier
of the Czech Rep.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladim%C3%ADr_Me%C4%8Diar)(AP,
9/21/02)(WSJ, 4/26/96, p.A-1)(SFC, 5/13/96, p.A-8)(AP, 1/1/98)
1993 Nov 16, Lucia Popp (54),
Slovakia-born soprano (Vienna Opera), died in Munich.
(www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Popp-Lucia.htm)
1993 In Slovakia Michal Kovac
was elected president.
(SFC, 5/29/97, p.A13)
1993-1998 In Slovakia Prime Minister Vladimir
Meciar governed during a period marked by international isolation.
The country's failure to join NATO along with some of its neighbors
in 1999 was attributed to Western dislike of Meciar's undemocratic
practices.
(AP, 9/21/02)
1994 Mar, In Slovakia Pres.
Kovac called for and parliament approved the removal of prime
minister Vladimir Meciar. Later in the year Meciar’s party won a
plurality and he was renamed prime minister.
(SFC, 5/29/97, p.A13)
1994 Meciar’s party won a
plurality and he was renamed prime minister.
(SFC, 5/29/97, p.A13)
1995 Aug, Michal Kovac Jr.
(34), the son of Pres. Michal Kovac Sr., was kidnapped and later
dumped drugged and unconscious in front of a police station in
Vienna. An Austrian court soon released him because of the illegal
manner of his detainment.
(SFC, 4/21/00, p.A18)(Econ, 4/1/17, p.45)
1996 Jan, In Bratislava Prime
Minister Vladimir Meciar and his allies chipped away at all forms of
independent power. President Michal Kovac in a feud with Meciar
stated that the country's politics had stepped beyond the bounds of
democracy. The country is bordered by Poland, Ukraine, Hungary,
Austria, and the Czech Republic.
(WSJ, 1/17/96, p.A-14)
1996 Oct 17, Some 10,000 people
demonstrated against Culture Minister Ivan Hudec for firing National
Theater director Dusan Jamrich. Slovak artists claim that the
government is increasingly authoritarian.
(SFC, 10/18/96, C6)
1997 May 25, In weekend
elections less than 10% of the people bothered to vote after
government meddling led opposition leaders to call for a boycott.
(SFC, 5/29/97, p.A13)
1997 Jul 19, From Slovakia it
was reported that Bratislava had become a narcotics depot and
crossroad of the Balkan drug route from Turkey and Central Asia.
(SFC, 7/19/97, p.A8)
1997 Slovakia was bumped from
Nato’s invitation list and excluded as a candidate for the EU.
(WSJ, 6/14/01, p.B14)
1997 Martin Klein, Slovak
journalist, wrote a profanity-laced attack on Jan Sokol, the
archbishop of Slovakia, who wanted to bann the Milos Forman film
“The People vs. Larry Flynt” and its poster. Klein was charged with
defaming the Roman Catholic faith and lost his court case. In 2005
the suit moved up to the European Court of Human Rights in
Strasbourg, France.
(SSFC, 7/24/05, p.C2)
1998 Mar, The 5-year term of
Pres. Kovac expired.
(SFEC, 5/16/99, p.A21)
1998 Sep 27, In Slovakia
opposition leaders claimed victory after 2 days of elections for a
new parliament. Prime Minister Meciar’s Movement for a Democratic
Slovakia won 27% of the vote. Slovak Democratic Coalition leader
Mikulas Dzurinda was seen as Meciar’s successor.
(SFC, 9/28/98, p.A9)
1998 Oct 28, Four Slovak
opposition parties formed a centre-right coalition government under
Mikulas Dzurinda.
(SFC, 10/29/98, p.A14)(Econ, 3/27/04, p.52)
1999 Apr 19, One of the annual
Goldman Environmental Prizes went to: Michal Kravcik, a Slovakian
hydrologist, who successfully fought a government plan to dam the
Upper Torysa River in 1996.
(SFC, 4/19/99, p.A2)
1999 May 15, In Slovakia
presidential elections were held and Rudolf Schuster (65), mayor of
Kosice, was the front runner over Vladimir Meciar (57). Schuster won
47% of the vote to Meciar's 37% and a runoff was scheduled for May
29.
(SFEC, 5/16/99, p.A21)(SFC, 5/17/99, p.A10)
1999 May 29, In Slovakia Rudolf
Schuster was elected president in a runoff election against Vladimir
Meciar, the authoritarian former prime minister.
(WSJ, 6/1/99, p.A1)
1999 Dec 10, The EU granted
preliminary consideration for membership to Bulgaria, Latvia,
Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Malta.
(SFC, 12/11/99, p.A16)
2000 Apr, In Slovakia police
arrested former Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar for paying
unauthorized bonuses to Cabinet members during his 5 years in
office. He was released after several hours.
(SFC, 4/21/00, p.A18)
2000 Oct, US Steel announced
the last steps in its acquisition of Vychodoslovenske zelziarne AS
(VSZ), the majority of the country’s steel industry.
(WSJ, 10/12/00, p.A1)
2000 Oct-2000 Feb, Slovak
brokers were involved in a plan to ship Mi24 helicopter gunships
from Kyrgyzstan to Liberia. One was shipped and another was
confiscated by Slovak customs agents.
(WSJ, 12/11/01, p.A15)
2001 Jun 11, In Slovakia 17
Indian would-be immigrants were believed to have drowned while
trying to cross the Morava River from Slovakia to the Czech
Republic.
(SFC, 6/14/01, p.C3)
2001 The new Maria Valeria
Bridge over the Danube reunited Sturovo, Slovakia, with Esztergom,
Hungary. Germans blew up the old bridge in 1944.
(WSJ, 4/5/05, p.A15)
2002 Sep 21, In Slovakia
Vladimir Meciar, the authoritarian former prime minister, appeared
to edge out his rivals in elections, but he was without the support
needed to catapult him to power in the face of united opposition.
Mikulas Dzurinda was re-elected as PM.
(AP, 9/21/02)(Econ, 6/3/06, p.45)
2002 Sep 26, NATO planned to
issue invitations in November to Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia,
Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. Expansion would commit
the current 19 members to defend the borders of the new members.
(SFC, 9/26/02, p.A1)
2002 Oct 9, The European
Union's executive Commission declared Bulgaria, the Czech Republic,
Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania,
Slovenia, and Slovakia nearly ready for EU membership and
recommended they be invited to join in 2004. Romania and Bulgaria
likely will be delayed until 2007 because of weak economies, the
Commission said, adding Turkey was the weakest link among
candidates.
(AP, 10/9/02)
2002 Nov 21, The Baltic nations
of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania joined former communist states
Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia as the next wave of NATO
states.
(AP, 11/21/02)
2002 Dec 13, The EU reached
agreement to accept 10 new countries in 2004. These included Czech
Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta,
Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia.
(SFC, 12/14/02, p.A3)
2003 Apr 15, Slovakia Pres.
Rudolf Schuster signed an accession document committing Slovakia to
joining NATO, the next-to-last step on the long road to membership
in the military alliance.
(AP, 4/15/03)
2003 May 16, Slovak voters
began a two-day referendum to reaffirm their nation's top foreign
policy goal to be membership in the European Union.
(AP, 5/16/03)
2003 May 17, Slovaks in a 2-day
plebiscite voted to join the European Union. About 92 percent of
voters approved EU membership, with a turnout of some 52 percent.
(AP, 5/17/03)
2003 Jul 3, Slovakia's
parliament approved an amendment to make abortion legal until the
24th week of pregnancy.
(AP, 7/3/03)
2003 Sep 11, Weary and
trembling, Pope John Paul II struggled to greet Slovaks as he began
a four-day visit.
(AP, 9/11/03)
2003 Sep 14, Pope John Paul II
wrapped up a pilgrimage to Slovakia by beatifying two clerics, Greek
Catholic Bishop Vasil Hopko and Roman Catholic Sister Zdenka
Schelingova, who were jailed and tortured under the former communist
regime.
(AP, 9/14/03)
2003 The Slovak parliament
voted to cut taxes on personal incomes and for a single flat rate of
19% on corporate profits effective in 2004. The statutory retirement
age was raised and a new pay-as-go pension scheme was created to be
supplemented by privatization revenues.
(Econ, 11/8/03, p.48)
2003 PSA Peugeot Citroen,
Europe’s 2nd biggest carmaker, decided to make the successor of its
206 model in Trnava, Slovakia. The car had been manufactured in the
Ryton factory near Coventry, England.
(Econ, 4/22/06, p.55)
2004 Mar 29, Pres. Bush hosted
a White House ceremony to welcome Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania,
Latvia, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia into the NATO alliance.
(WSJ, 3/30/04, p.A1)
2004 Mar, KIA Motors, a unit of
South Korea’s Hyundai group, decided to build a new $850 million
plant in Slovakia, where corporate and personal taxes were recently
cut to a flat 19%.
(Econ, 3/6/04, p.60)
2004 Apr 2, In Brussels an
official ceremony welcomed Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia,
Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia into the NATO alliance.
(SFC, 4/3/04, p.A11)
2004 Apr 3, Slovaks voted for a
new president. Former authoritarian PM Meciar led after the first
round of Slovakia's presidential election. Low turnout set up an Apr
17 runoff against a former political ally.
(AP, 4/4/04)(WSJ, 4/5/04, p.A1)
2004 Apr 17, In Slovakia Ivan
Gasparovic (63), an ex-chairman of parliament previously loyal to
ex-PM Vladimir Meciar (61), won a presidential runoff against Meciar
with 59.91 percent of the vote. The turnout was 43.5%.
(AP, 4/18/04)(Econ, 4/24/04, p.49)
2004 Apr 27, Russian Foreign
Minister Sergey Lavrov and EU officials signed an accord extending
the EU-Russia partnership accord to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania,
Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Cyprus and
Malta, which join May 1.
(AP, 4/27/04)
2004 May 1, Revelers across
ex-communist eastern Europe celebrated their historic entry to the
European Union. 10 new members (Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia,
Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia)
joined. Malta joined with 70 exemptions to EU rules. Poland had 43
exemptions. Latvia had 32. The Turkish occupied area of Cyprus was
suspended from entry.
(AP, 5/1/04)(Econ, 2/28/04, p.50)(Econ, 4/16/05,
p.16)
2004 Sep, Unemployment in
Slovakia fell to 13.1% from 20% in 2002. The average household
income was around $240 per month.
(WSJ, 11/3/04, p.B2F)(SSFC, 11/21/04, p.B3)
2005 Jan 1, Slovakia was
forecast for 5.1% annual GDP growth with a population at 5.4 million
and GDP per head at $8,940.
(Econ, 1/8/05, p.89)
2005 May 11, Lawmakers in
Austria and neighboring Slovakia voted overwhelmingly to ratify the
new European constitution, giving much-needed support to the charter
intended to strengthen the 25-member European Union.
(AP, 5/12/05)
2005 Jul, Unemployment in
Slovakia stood at 15.2%.
(WSJ, 9/21/05, p.A7)
2005 Nov 25, Slovakia joined
the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) as a first step towards
adopting the European Union's common euro currency.
(AFP, 11/26/05)
2005 Dec 19, Ladislav Niznansky
(88), a former Nazi commander, was acquitted of murder in three
massacres in Slovakia after a court said there was no reliable
evidence he was involved in the killings. Niznansky, a former Slovak
army captain who at first supported the 1944 revolt, changed sides
after he was captured and took charge of the Slovak section of a
Nazi unit, code-named Edelweiss, that hunted resistance fighters and
Jews. He was convicted of the massacres and sentenced to death in
absentia by Czechoslovakia in 1962.
(AP, 12/19/05)
2005 Dec 31, In Slovakia 7
tourists from the Czech Republic died in avalanches in the Tatra
mountains. A day earlier a German was killed by an avalanche in the
Swiss Alps.
(AFP, 12/31/05)
2005 In Bratislava, Slovakia,
the new Eurovea Int’l. Trade Center began developing on the
riverfront. The 1st phase was expected to complete in 2009.
(WSJ, 9/21/05, p.A7)
2006 Jan 19, In northeastern
Hungary a Slovak military plane crashed as it ferried troops back
from Kosovo, killing at least 42 people. Only one person survived
the crash of the AN-24 aircraft.
(AP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jun 6, The Spanish
interior ministry said that 67 suspects had been arrested for
accessing child porn on the Internet over the past five days. The
international police operation arrested 38 in France, 10 in Spain, 9
in Slovakia, 7 in Belgium and 3 in the Netherlands.
(AP, 6/6/06)
2006 Jun 17, Slovaks voted in
their first election since joining the EU, choosing between a record
third term for PM Mikulas Dzurinda or a leftist pledging to overturn
economic and social reforms. Smer, Slovakia's opposition leftist
party led by Robert Fico, won the parliamentary elections, tapping
into widespread public discontent over eight years of austere
economic reforms.
(AP, 6/17/06)(AP, 6/18/06)(Econ, 7/8/06, p.44)
2006 Jun 18, Slovakia's leftist
Smer party promised a radical break with economic reforms on after
winning an election that showed voters' fatigue with the tough
changes made during eight years of center-right rule.
(Reuters, 6/18/06)
2006 Jul 25, The Slovak central
bank raised key interest rates by 50 basis points.
(Econ, 8/12/06,
p.43)(www.slovakspectator.sk/clanok.asp?cl=24271)
2007 Mar 2, An explosion in a
Slovakian ammunition factory killed two people, left six missing and
injured 45, five seriously.
(AP, 3/2/07)
2007 Aug 21, Hana Ponicka (85),
a Slovak writer and former anti-communist dissident, died.
(AP, 8/22/07)
2007 Nov 28, Two Hungarians and
a Ukrainian were arrested in eastern Slovakia and Hungary in an
attempted sale of a kilo (2.2 lbs) of uranium, material
believed to be from the former Soviet Union. Police said it was
enriched enough to be used in a radiological "dirty bomb."
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Dec 20, Estonia, Hungary,
Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia and the Czech
Republic halted land and sea border controls at midnight in a wave
of new members of Europe's passport-free Schengen zone. They all
joined the EU on May 1, 2004.
(AFP, 12/20/07)(WSJ, 12/21/07, p.A1)
2008 Mar 17, The US
administration signed deals with Hungary, Lithuania and Slovakia
paving the way for visa-free travel for their citizens despite
concerns in Brussels over the bilateral agreements.
(AFP, 3/17/08)
2008 May 28, Slovakia revalued
its currency. Finance minister Jan Pociatek was soon accused of
leaking news of the revaluation to J&T, Slovakia’s leading
investment fund.
(Econ, 6/28/08, p.58)
2008 Jun 1, In Slovakia a new
media law was set to go into effect giving anyone mentioned in an
article sweeping rights to an equally prominent rebuttal. Newspapers
responded by publishing blank front pages. Leading newspapers had
done this twice before during the Meciar years to protest
restrictions on press freedom.
(Econ, 4/26/08, p.71)(Econ, 11/21/09, p.55)
2008 Jul 8, The EU formally
invited Slovakia to join the euro zone on Jan. 1, 2009.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2009 Jan 1, Slovakia became the
16th European Union member state to adopt the euro. This day also
marks 10 years since the euro was introduced.
(AP, 1/1/09)
2009 Jan 11, Slovakia reopened
a nuclear power plant it was forced to shut down as part of its bid
to join the European Union, prompting condemnation from neighboring
Austria, which described the reactor at Bohunice as unsafe.
(AP, 1/11/09)
2009 Jan 14, Russia and Ukraine
wrangled over gas supplies again. Bulgaria and Slovakia, cut off by
the row for a freezing week, launched missions to plead for Russian
gas flow to be restored.
(Reuters, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 22, European Union
antitrust regulators said they raided Slovakia's main telecom
operator last week on suspicion of monopoly abuse.
(AP, 1/22/09)
2009 Feb 21, In central
Slovakia a train collided with a bus, killing 11 people and injuring
21 others near the town of Brezno.
(AP, 2/21/09)
2009 Apr 4, In Slovakia Pres.
Ovan Gasparovic was re-elected for a 2nd 5-year term with 55% of the
vote over Iveta Radicova, who had hoped to become Slovakia’s 1st
female president.
(WSJ, 4/6/09, p.A8)
2009 Aug 10, In central
Slovakia 19 workers were trapped underground after a fire and
explosion hit the Handlova coal mine. The trapped workers were nine
miners who were initially sent to battle a blaze and 11 sent as
reinforcements as the fire grew. All were believed killed.
(AP, 8/10/09)(AP, 8/11/09)
2009 Aug 21, Slovakia stopped
Hungary’s Pres. Laszlo Solyom from crossing its border. This was a
breach of EU rules on freedom of movement. Solyom had planned
to unveil a statue of St. Stephen, the first king of Hungary, in the
predominantly Hungarian city of Komarno. Slovakia’s government had
objected to the visit as the date coincided with the “Prague Spring”
of 1968, when Hungary, as part of the Warsaw pact, took part in the
Soviet crush of Czechoslovakia’s independence movement.
(Econ, 8/29/09, p.46)
2009 Sep 1, In Slovakia a new
language law was scheduled to come into force to promote the use of
Slovak in public. Hungarian speakers, who numbered about a fifth of
the population, viewed this as a direct attack on their right to
speak their mother-tongue.
(Econ, 8/1/09, p.47)
2009 Sep 9, The Dalai Lama
received Slovakia's Jan Langos award for his promotion of human
rights and his leadership in the nonviolent campaign by Tibetans
seeking autonomy from China. The Jan Langos Foundation gives its
award to "an outstanding figure of the local defiance against
oppressed regimes and their security services" and to civil servants
and politicians who "endeavor for human dignity and freedom."
(AP, 9/9/09)
2009 Nov 17, Slovakia pledged
about 250 extra soldiers to the NATO-led force in Afghanistan, the
first of what British PM Gordon Brown said would be a series of
international reinforcements.
(AP, 11/18/09)
2009 Dec 28, Slovakia said that
Russia had warned it might halt oil supplies through Ukraine to
three European Union countries over a price dispute.
(AFP, 12/28/09)
2010 Jan 19, The Slovak Foreign
Ministry said the country has agreed to take in three inmates from
the US prison at Guantanamo Bay in an effort to help President
Barack Obama to close it down.
(AP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 24, The US sent 3
detainees held at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to
Slovakia, the latest transfers as the Obama administration tries to
close the facility.
(Reuters, 1/25/10)
2010 May 18, In southern Poland
2 days of flooding killed at least five people. Officials closed the
Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial site to protect its Holocaust archives
and artifacts. Heavy rains that began in central Europe last weekend
also caused flooding in areas of Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech
Republic, with rivers bursting their banks and inundating low-lying
homes and roads, and cutting off villages.
(AP, 5/18/10)
2010 May 22, In Slovakia
authorities in Bratislava called off the country’s first-ever gay
pride parade following attacks by neo-Nazis.
(SSFC, 5/23/10, p.A6)
2010 Jun 12, Slovakia's three
party governing coalition fought for survival in a parliamentary
election, challenged in a tight race by the center-right opposition.
Voters handed PM Robert Fico a setback by giving the center-right
opposition a majority.
(AP, 6/12/10)(AP, 6/13/10)
2010 Jul 9, Slovakia’s Pres.
Ovan Gasparovic appointed a new center-right government led by Iveta
Radicova, the country’s first female prime minister.
(SFC, 7/10/10, p.A2)
2010 Aug 30, In Slovakia a
gunman killed 7 people and wounded 14 in an attack at an apartment
building in Bratislava, then committed suicide.
(AP, 8/30/10)(Econ, 9/4/10, p.55)
2010 Nov 3, Slovakia’s
government agreed to deploy up to 348 service members in the
NATO-force in Afghanistan next year, up from the current 299. The
decision still needed parliamentary approval.
(AP, 11/3/10)
2010 Nov 8, In Slovakia Ernest
Valko (57), the former chief judge of Czechoslovakia's
Constitutional Court, was shot to death in his home in Limbach. As a
lawyer, he represented the Slovak government and served as a legal
adviser for the National Property Fund, an institution in charge
state property privatization.
(AP, 11/9/10)
2011 May 10, In Slovakia
Jaroslava Oravcova (43) was wounded after a gunbattle with officers
during an undercover police operation to apprehend him. Police
believe the man used the Internet to search for a person who wanted
to commit suicide and would agree to let him eat the body. Oravcova
died from his wounds on May 12.
(AP, 5/12/11)
2011 Oct 11, Slovakia’s
government fell when Parliament failed to approve more powers for an
EU bailout fund in a vote tied to a confidence vote in Radicova's
1-year-old government. The vote failed because a coalition partner
refused to support it. The parliament rejected a bill that would
have strengthened the powers of the regional rescue fund to help
bail out strapped economies in the eurozone. Outgoing PM Iveta
Radicova and her main opponent said they will work to try to get the
bill through Parliament.
(AP, 10/12/11)(AP, 10/14/11)
2011 Oct 13, Slovakia’s
Parliament approved an expanded EU fund in a repeat vote after the
opposition voted in favor in exchange for early elections.
(AP, 10/14/11)
2011 Oct 14, Slovak President
Ivan Gasparovic said he will dismiss PM Iveta Radicova's coalition
government. It had lost a parliamentary confidence vote on Oct 11.
(AP, 10/14/11)
2011 Dec 1, In Slovakia more
than 1,200 doctors of some 7,000 from public hospitals resigned from
their posts over low pay, forcing hospitals to delay planned
operations and focus on necessary treatment. A new deal was
announced on Dec 3 that will ensure salaries for doctors in the
state-run hospitals of up to 2.3 times higher than average.
(AP, 12/3/11)
2011 Dec, In Slovakia the
"Gorilla" files were mysteriously posted online by an anonymous
source. They purportedly documented shady dealings between 2005 and
2006, and suggest that investment group Penta bribed government and
opposition politicians to win lucrative privatization deals. They
were said to be based on wiretaps and rocked the already-raucous
world of Slovak politics. The spy agency, SIS, has refused to
confirm the file's authenticity. SIS heads are suspected of sweeping
the wiretap findings under the carpet. Police began investigating
following the anonymous leak.
(AP, 3/8/12)
2012 Mar 10, Slovakia held
elections. The Smer-Social Democracy party of former PM Robert Fico
was the clear winner with 44.4 percent of the vote, or 83 seats in
the 150-seat Parliament, with votes from all 5,956 polling stations
counted.
(AP, 3/11/12)
2012 Jul 2, The Vatican said
that Pope Benedict has "relieved from pastoral care" Bishop Robert
Bezak of Trnava, Slovakia. Italian news reports suggested
administrative problems were to blame.
(AP, 7/3/12)
2012 Jul 15, The Nazi-hunting
Simon Wiesenthal Center confirmed that Laszlo Csatary (97), accused
of complicity in the killings of 15,700 Jews, had been tracked down
to the Hungarian capital. He served during World War II as a senior
Hungarian police officer in the Slovakian city of Kosice, then under
Hungarian rule.
(AFP, 7/16/12)
2013 Jan, Iran arrested Slovak
national Matej Valuch (26) and accused him of spying for the
US CIA. On Feb 8 Valuch was released and returned home.
(AP, 2/8/13)
2013 Apr 15, Metropolitan
Krystof (59), head of the Orthodox Church in the Czech Rep. and
Slovakia resigned amid allegations of affairs with women and
fathering illegitimate children.
(SFC, 4/16/13, p.A2)
2013 Jun 4, Flooding continued
along the Danube and other southern European rivers. The dead
included 8 people in the Czech Republic, 4 in Germany, 4 in Austria
and one in Slovakia.
(AP, 6/5/13)
2013 Jun 9, At least 21
flood-related deaths have been reported in central Europe. A week of
heavy rains and flooding caused extensive damage in central and
southern Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia and Hungary.
(AP, 6/9/13)
2013 Jun 28, The Slovak news
website www.sme.sk said a group of five or six Slovak hang-glider
enthusiasts were detained 3 weeks ago in Iran on suspicion of
espionage.
(Reuters, 6/28/13)
2013 Dec 11, Iran released the
last two of eight Slovak paragliders arrested for allegedly spying
after PM Robert Fico and Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak flew in to
secure their release.
(AFP, 12/12/13)
2013 Dec 31, US officials said
Slovakia has accepted three Uighur prisoners from Guantanamo Bay who
had posed a difficult resettlement challenge.
(AP, 12/31/13)
2014 Mar 15, Slovaks voted in
the first round of a presidential election, a largely ceremonial
post. PM Robert Fico and businessman-turned philanthropist Andrej
Kiska (51) beat 12 other candidates in the first round of voting.
Turnout was low at 43.4 percent. Both men will compete in a March 29
election.
(AFP, 3/15/14)(AP, 3/16/14)
2014 Mar 29, Slovak voters
turned out in unexpectedly higher numbers for the runoff in the
country's presidential election as underdog philanthropist Andrej
Kiska challenged political heavyweight PM Robert Fico. Andrej Kiska
trounced PM Robert Fico in the presidential election.
(Reuters, 3/29/14)(Reuters, 3/29/14)
2014 Apr 16, Slovak police said
they have arrested two men after they allegedly produced counterfeit
Czech and Swiss banknotes of "exceptionally" high quality and spent
at least 1.2 million koruna ($60,000) of the fake cash in shopping
malls over the past three years.
(AP, 4/16/14)
2014 Jun 4, Slovakia joined
neighbor the Czech Republic in effectively ruling out hosting NATO
units, when PM Robert Fico said he could not imagine there would be
foreign soldiers on its territory.
(Reuters, 6/4/14)
2014 Jun 15, Slovakia
inaugurated Andrej Kiska (51) its 4th president since independence
in 1993. He vowed continued cooperation with the EU and NATO amid
concerns about security in neighboring Ukraine.
(AP, 6/15/14)
2014 Jun 26, A Slovak court in
Bratislava ruled that Czech Finance Minister Andrej Babis, a rising
star of the Czech politics, did not collaborate with the
communist-era secret police.
(AP, 6/26/14)
2014 Aug 31, Slovakia's PM
Robert Fico slammed EU sanctions on Russia as "meaningless and
counterproductive" and threatened to veto additional measures,
highlighting the internal divide within the EU over its tough stance
on Russia.
(Reuters, 8/31/14)
2014 Sep 16, Slovak gas
importer SPP reported a 25 percent reduction in gas supplies from
Russia via Ukraine, the biggest drop since a decline in deliveries
was first reported last week.
(Reuters, 9/16/14)
2014 Sep, The European
commission launched a case against the Czech Rep. over the one-third
number of Roma in schools for the mentally disabled. The following
April it did the same for Slovakia.
(Econ, 6/6/15, p.44)
2014 Dec 4, Slovakia's PM
Robert Fico said his government is terminating the lease of a major
state-owned hydro power plant to Enel, an Italian energy company.
Enel owns a 66 percent stake in Slovakia's major power producer,
Slovenske elektrarne, and is currently trying to sell its share. The
government owns the remaining 34 percent.
(AP, 12/4/14)
2015 Feb 7, Slovaks voted in a
nationwide a referendum that would bar gay marriages and adoptions,
and allow parents to decide whether their children attend sex
education classes. The votes won't count unless at least half of the
eligible voters turn out. Voters overwhelmingly voted "yes" — 95, 92
and 90 percent, respectively — to the three questions. But turnout
reached only 21.4 percent, far less than the 50 percent needed.
(AP, 2/7/15)(AP, 2/8/15)
2015 Feb 19, In Slovakia
thousands of court officials went on a one-day warning strike,
complaining of low pay and underfunding of the legal system.
(AP, 2/19/15)
2015 Jun 20, In Slovakia at
least 140 people were arrested after violence broke out at an
anti-immigration rally in Bratislava attended by thousands of people
in protest at EU quotas on migrant numbers.
(AFP, 6/20/15)
2015 Jul 3, Slovakia's spy
agency in its annual report said Russian agents have significantly
increased their activities in Slovakia and all other NATO and
European Union countries in connection with the crisis in Ukraine.
(AP, 7/3/15)
2015 Aug 20, In Slovakia two
planes carrying dozens of parachutists collided in midair, killing 7
people. 31 others on board survived by jumping out with their
parachutes.
(AP, 8/20/15)
2015 Sep 4, In a joint
statement the prime ministers of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland
and Slovakia rejected any quota system for accepting migrants in the
European Union's 28 members.
(AP, 9/4/15)
2015 Sep 10, The prime
ministers of Slovakia and Ukraine condemned a recent deal to expand
a pipeline that delivers natural gas directly from Russia to
Germany. An agreement signed earlier this month between Russian
giant Gazprom and energy companies from Western EU countries,
including E.ON, OMV, Royal Dutch Shell and others, is meant to
expand the current Nord Stream pipeline under the Baltic Sea that
directly links Germany with Siberia's natural gas reserves.
(AP, 9/10/15)
2015 Sep 14, Austria and
Slovakia said they were reinstating border controls to cope with a
flood of refugees, following a similar move by Germany, which warned
it could face up to one million migrant arrivals this year.
(AFP, 9/14/15)
2015 Sep 15, PM Robert Fico
said Slovakia will never support mandatory quotas as part of the
European Union's response to its migrant crisis.
(Reuters, 9/15/15)
2015 Nov 13, A Ukrainian
helicopter crashed in eastern Slovakia, killing 6 people.
(AP, 11/13/15)
2015 Nov 27, Slovakia's economy
minister said his country will join forces with other Central and
Eastern members of the European Union to protest a recent deal to
expand a pipeline that delivers natural gas directly from Russia to
Germany.
(AP, 11/27/15)
2015 Dec 2, Slovakia filed a
lawsuit at the European Court of Justice against a European Union
decision to redistribute 120,000 asylum seekers among member
countries.
(Reuters, 12/2/15)
2015 Dec 5, Slovakia's leftist
PM Robert Fico (51) promised to protect voters from international
terrorism and unveiled a billion euro welfare plan as he launched
campaign for a third term in office.
(Reuters, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 8, The Slovak
Parliament amended the constitution to give authorities more powers
to deal with terror suspects following the attacks in Paris.
(AP, 12/8/15)
2015 Dec 11, Jaguar Land Rover
signed a deal with the Slovak government to build a new plant for
the luxury car maker in Slovakia.
(AP, 12/11/15)
2016 Jan 25, Thousands of
Slovak teachers went on strike to demand higher pay, forcing
authorities to close hundreds of schools across the country.
(AP, 1/25/16)
2016 Feb, In Slovakia Zuzana
Hlavkova (26), an employee in the foreign ministry, reported to her
superiors that inflated contracts tied to the country’s presidency
of the European Council, were being awarded to firms allied with the
governing Smer party. When nothing happened she quit her job and
took her evidence to the local branch of Transparency Int’l. In
November they went public.
(Econ, 12/3/16, p.43)
2016 Mar 5, Slovaks voted in a
general election expected to hand firebrand leftist PM Robert Fico a
third term on the back of a staunchly anti-refugee platform. The
leftist ruling party won the parliamentary election, but will need
coalition partners to form a majority government. The
anti-immigration, anti-euro People's Party-Our Slovakia shocked many
when it won 8 percent of the vote, or almost 210,000 votes, to enter
parliament for the first time.
(AFP, 3/5/16)(AP, 3/6/16)(Reuters, 6/25/16)
2016 Apr 18, Zuzana Caputova
(42) of Slovakia was one of six winners of this year's Goldman
Environmental Prize. She was recognized for her efforts stopping
foreign trash facilities from being built in her country.
(SFC, 4/18/16, p.C2)
2016 Jun 25, Slovakia's far
right People's Party launched a petition for a referendum on the
country's EU membership, the latest state to see a challenge
following Britain's vote to leave the bloc.
(Reuters, 6/25/16)
2016 Nov 23, Slovak PM Robert
Fico told journalists they were "dirty, anti-Slovak prostitutes"
when asked about allegations that public procurement rules had been
broken for cultural events marking Slovakia's European Union
presidency.
(Reuters, 11/23/16)
2016 Nov 30, Slovakia passed
legislation to effectively block Islam from gaining official status
as a religion in the near future in the latest sign of growing
anti-Muslim sentiment across the European Union.
(Reuters, 11/30/16)
2017 Jan 1, In Slovakia train
and railway station patrols set up by a far-right parliamentary
party became illegal as of today. The People's
Party Our Slovakia had launched the unarmed patrols in April
following a violent incident on a passenger train, claiming the
state was unable to keep people safe.
(AP, 1/1/17)
2017 Jan 9, The Czech Republic
said it has approved a plan for Czech and Slovak air forces to
cooperate in protecting air spaces over the two neighboring
countries that once formed Czechoslovakia. Slovakia's government had
already approved the deal.
(AP, 1/9/17)
2017 Jan 31, Slovakia’s PM
Robert Fico Slovakia introduced a new police unit to fight terrorism
and far-right extremism.
(AP, 2/1/17)
2017 Mar 2, The Czech Republic,
Hungary, Poland and Slovakia urged the European Union to boost the
role of national parliaments under a planned overhaul of the bloc's
decision-making process.
(Reuters, 3/2/17)
2017 Mar 13, Slovakia’s PM
Robert Fico said he would revoke an amnesty law passed by former PM
Vladimir Meciar.
(Econ, 4/1/17, p.45)
2017 Mar 28, The central
European Visegrad Group (Czech Rep., Hungary, Poland and Slovakia)
rejected a European Union policy that calls for all member states to
receive migrants, protesting suggestions that the level of their
compliance could be linked to the availability of EU funds to them.
(AP, 3/28/17)
2017 Apr 3, Slovakia's Pres.
Andrej Kiska signed a constitutional amendment that makes it
possible for lawmakers to annul pardons granted by former PM
Vladimir Meciar that barred an investigation into the kidnapping of
the son of late Pres. Michal Kovac.
(AP, 4/3/17)
2017 May 25, Slovak prosecutors
took steps to ban a far-right party that won its first parliamentary
seats last year, saying it posed a threat to the country's
democratic system. The People's Party-Our Slovakia, which openly
admires Jozef Tiso, leader of a Nazi puppet state that ruled the
country during World War Two, won a larger-than-expected 8 percent
of the vote in national elections in March 2016.
(Reuters, 5/25/17)
2017 Jun 12, Researchers say
they've discovered a worrying breed of power grid-wrecking software,
saying the program was likely responsible for a brief blackout that
hit Kiev late last year. Slovakia-based computer security company
ESET and Maryland-based Dragos, Inc. published a report saying that
the malicious software has the ability to control the switches and
circuit breakers.
(AP, 6/12/17)
2017 Jun 23, French President
Emmanuel Macron and four eastern European Union leaders (Visegrad-4)
sought to turn the page after publicly trading barbs over their
differences on issues ranging from jobs to the bloc’s fundamental
values. Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic say they
should be allowed to compete on lower prices - just as more
developed western EU nations compete on quality products and
know-how - to catch up after decades of communist stagnation.
(Reuters, 6/23/17)
2017 Jul 27, Slovakia’s PM
Robert Fico took a fight about the quality of food on his country's
supermarket shelves to the European Commission, calling for action
to stop companies selling lower-quality products in Central and
Eastern Europe than elsewhere in the continent.
(AP, 7/27/17)
2017 Aug 7, In Slovakia a
junior partner in the ruling coalition, the Slovak National Party
(SNS), surprised its partners by pulling out of an agreement
underpinning the government and calling for a new deal.
(Reuters, 8/7/17)
2017 Sep 6, The European
Union's highest court ruled that EU states must take in a share of
refugees who reach Europe, dismissing complaints by Slovakia and
Hungary and reigniting an angry row between east and west.
(Reuters, 9/6/17)
2017 Sep 11, In Slovakia the
leaders of the three parties that form the governing coalition
signed an amendment to their deal to rule together. This ended a
crisis that began last month after a junior partner, the
ultra-nationalist Slovak National Party, unexpectedly announced it
was withdrawing from it.
(AP, 9/11/17)
2017 Oct 12, Slovakia's
Constitutional Court ordered a lower court to look again at claims
that Andrej Babis, the man who hopes to be the Czech Republic's next
prime minister, collaborated with the Czechoslovak communist-era
secret police.
(AP, 10/12/17)
2017 Nov 15, Slovakia's
government approved plans to build military armored vehicles with
the Finnish defense industry company Patria to replace the NATO
member's outdated armored personnel carriers.
(Reuters, 11/15/17)
2017 Dec 9, In Germany the
Swedish comedy "The Square" swept this year's European Film Awards
in Berlin, winning six prizes, including for best film, director and
screenwriter. This year's best actress award went to Alexandra
Borbely of Slovakia for her role in "On Body and Soul."
(AP, 12/10/17)
2017 Dec 14, The Czech
Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia announced that they plan to
spend around 35 million euros ($41 million) to beef up European
Union borders as they come under pressure for refusing to accept
refugee quotas.
(AP, 12/14/17)
2018 Feb 21, Slovakia’s PM
Robert Fico said his country will not ratify a European treaty
designed to combat violence against women, bowing to opposition from
junior coalition partner and religious groups. Fico said that though
Slovakia would adopt into law all measures aimed at combating
violence against women, it would not ratify the treaty, which he
said was a controversial document that could violate the
constitution and lead to the introduction of same-sex marriage.
(Reuters, 2/22/18)
2018 Feb 25, Slovak journalist
Jan Kuciak (27) and his girlfriend were found dead at his home in
Velka Maca, 65 km (40 miles) east of the capital Bratislava. Kuciak
was working on a story about the activities of Italian mafia in
Slovakia and their links to people close to PM Robert Fico. On Feb.
28 Kuciak's Aktuality.sk news website published his last, unfinished
story. In 2019 four suspects were indicted.
(Reuters, 2/26/18)(AP, 2/28/18)(SFC, 10/22/19,
p.A2)
2018 Mar 1, Slovak police
raided houses linked to the alleged members of the Italian
'ndrangheta syndicate in connection with the slaying of
investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his girlfriend, Martina
Kusnirova. Seven men were detained.
(AP, 3/2/18)
2018 Mar 3, Police in Slovakia
released seven Italians who were detained as suspects in the
slayings of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his girlfriend.
(AP, 3/3/18)
2018 Mar 4, Slovak President
Andrej Kiska called for substantial changes in the country's
coalition government or for an early election to resolve the
"serious political crisis" the country is facing after the slayings
of an investigative reporter and his fiancée.
(AP, 3/4/18)
2018 Mar 9, Thousands of
Slovaks joined the second mass protest in a week over the murder of
a journalist that has rocked the country and threatened to wreck PM
Robert Fico's coalition government. Tens of thousands rallied in
Bratislava and across the country demanding thorough investigations
and changes in government.
(Reuters, 3/9/18)(SFC, 3/10/18, p.A2)
2018 Mar 12, Slovak Interior
Minister Robert Kalinak said he would resign, bowing to the demands
of a junior coalition partner, as Prime Minister Robert Fico fights
to save his government after mass protests following a journalist's
murder.
(Reuters, 3/12/18)
2018 Mar 15, Slovak PM Robert
Fico and his government resigned as a way out of the political
crisis triggered by the slayings of an investigative journalist and
his fiancée. Pres. Andrej Kiska asked deputy prime minister Peter
Pellegrini to form a new government.
(AP, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 16, Tens of thousands
of Slovaks demanded early elections in protests across the country
after PM Robert Fico's resignation failed to quell public anger
following the murder of an investigative journalist.
(Reuters, 3/16/18)
2018 Mar 22, Slovak President
Andrej Kiska appointed a new cabinet and said it must work to win
back the public's trust, which was shattered by the murder of an
investigative journalist that led to mass protests and the
resignation of veteran leader Robert Fico.
(Reuters, 3/22/18)
2018 Mar 26, A Slovak
prosecutor said the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak
and his fiancee last month, which sparked mass protests and forced
PM Robert Fico to resign, was likely to have been a contract
killing.
(Reuters, 3/26/18)
2018 Mar 28, Slovakia's foreign
minister said the government has decided to recall its ambassador to
Moscow for consultations over the nerve agent attack on a former spy
in Britain.
(AP, 3/28/18)
2018 Apr 5, In Slovakia nearly
50,000 people marched through the capital Bratislava and other
cities in a fresh sign of anger over a cozy political system many
say turns a blind eye to graft.
(Reuters, 4/8/18)
2018 Apr 16, Slovak new
Interior Minister Tomas Drucker resigned after resisting public
demand to sack the chief of police following an investigative
journalist's murder.
(AFP, 4/16/18)
2018 Apr 17, Slovakia's PM
Peter Pellegrini said Tibor Gaspar, the national police chief, will
resign on May 31 following street protests against him as the nation
struggles with a political crisis triggered by the slayings of an
investigative journalist and his fiancee.
(AP, 4/17/18)
2018 Apr 25, Slovakia's
government said it has approved a plan to deploy 152 troops in the
Baltics as part of NATO forces amid growing tensions between Russia
and the West. The soldiers will join NATO forces in Latvia, starting
in the second half of 2018.
(AP, 4/25/18)
2018 Apr 26, Slovak President
Andrej Kiska named Denisa Sakova, a leading ruling party figure, as
the new interior minister despite his reservations amid public calls
for an independent to guarantee a fair inquiry into the murder of an
investigative journalist.
(Reuters, 4/26/18)
2018 Jun 22, In Slovakia
businessman Marian Kocner was charged with forgery and unauthorized
money and securities manufacturing, together with former Economy
Minister Pavol Rusko. Kocner has been linked to slain investigative
journalist Jan Kuciak.
(AP, 6/22/18)
2018 Jul 11, Slovakia's defense
ministry said it has agreed to a $1.9 billion deal to buy 14 US-made
F-16 fighter jets to replace its ageing Russian-made MiG-29s.
(Reuters, 7/11/18)
2018 Jul 17, Slovak authorities
extradited an asylum seeker from the Russian Caucasus region of
Ingushetia to Russia, despite protests by rights watchdogs and a UN
Human Rights Committee ruling. Aslan Yandiev had been held in
custody in Slovakia since 2011 on a Russian warrant for involvement
in a series of bomb attacks in 2006 in Vladikavkaz. Yandiev has said
he had been tortured into confessing to terrorism-related crimes.
(Reuters, 7/18/18)
2018 Aug 21, Czechs and Slovaks
marked 50 years since Soviet tanks crushed the "Prague Spring"
democratic reform drive, while protesters used the anniversary to
rail against the current Czech government's ties to the Communist
Party.
(AFP, 8/21/18)
2018 Sep 28, Slovakia's police
say they have charged three suspects with murder in the slayings of
investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and Martina Kusnirova on Feb.
21.
(AP, 9/28/18)
2018 Oct 1, In Slovakia a
prosecutor said that a total sum of 70,000 euros ($81,000) was paid
for the Feb. 21 contract slayings of investigative journalist Jan
Kuciak and his fiancee.
(AP, 10/1/18)
2018 Oct 17, Slovakia's defense
ministry said the country will keep its military presence in Iraq
after the government approved a plan to deploy up to 42 soldiers
there next year to help train Iraqi security forces as part of a
NATO mission.
(AP, 10/17/18)
2018 Nov 25, Slovakia's PM
Peter Pellegrini said his country will not support the UN pact on
the treatment of migrants worldwide.
(Reuters, 11/25/18)
2018 Nov 30, In eastern
Slovakia five people, including four children, were killed in a
house fire in the town of Richnava.
(AP, 11/30/18)
2018 Dec 4, Slovakia's general
prosecutor ordered the release of 12 Greenpeace activists who were
detained last week after climbing a tower during a protest at a coal
mine that supplies one of the country's most polluting power plants.
The order overturned the decision of a Slovak court on Dec. 2 to
keep the activists in custody until trial.
(Reuters, 12/4/18)
2018 Dec 5, Slovakia's PM Peter
Pellegrini said his country has expelled a Russian diplomat after
discovering he was a spy working under diplomatic cover.
(AP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 12, Slovak Defense
Minister Peter Gajdos signed the contract to buy 14 F-16 military
jets from Lockheed Martin as it seeks to replace Soviet-era jets.
(AP, 12/12/18)
2019 Feb 19, Israeli PM
Benjamin Netanyahu held back-to-back meetings with Slovak PM Peter
Pellegrini, Czech PM Andrej Babis and Hungarian PM Viktor Orban
before hosting all three for lunch at his official residence. The
series of sit-downs replaced a high-profile summit in Jerusalem that
was cancelled over a rift with Poland.
(AP, 2/19/19)
2019 Mar 14, Slovak police and
prosecutors said a suspect has been charged with ordering the
slaying last year of an investigative reporter and his fiancee, a
case that brought down the Slovak government. Slovakian media
reported the suspect was Marian Kocner, a businessman long suspected
of involvement in the crime. Kocner was already in detention in a
separate case involving alleged forgery and securities crime.
(AP, 3/14/19)
2019 Mar 16, Slovaks voted in
round one of a ballot that could usher in Zuzana Caputova (45), a
vocal government critic, as the country's first female president.
Caputova, an anti-corruption campaigner with no experience in public
office, won the first round, setting up a tough clash with the
ruling Smer party's candidate.
(AP, 3/16/19)(Reuters, 3/16/19)
2019 Mar 28, Slovakia's
Parliament amended the country's constitution to cap the retirement
age at 64. Some women can retire up to a year and a half earlier
than that, depending on the number of children they've had.
(AP, 3/28/19)
2019 Mar 29, Slovakia's
lawmakers approved a resolution to reject an international treaty on
women's rights. Opponents of the 2011 Istanbul Convention charged
that some provisions would violate the Slovak constitution — for
example because the constitution defines marriage as a union of a
man and a woman.
(AP, 3/29/19)
2019 Mar 30, Slovakia voted in
an election dominated by calls for change, with anti-corruption
activist Zuzana Caputova likely to be chosen as its first female
president a year after a journalist's murder sparked mass
anti-government protests.
(AFP, 3/30/19)
2019 Apr 15, Slovakia's PM
Peter Pellegrini said his country will boost defense spending to 2
percent of gross domestic product by 2022, achieving the NATO goal
two years faster than planned.
(Reuters, 4/15/19)
2019 Jun 13, The Slovak capital
Bratislava won the right to host a new European Union agency to
oversee the labor market that is due to start operating this autumn.
(Reuters, 6/13/19)
2019 Jun 15, Slovak government
critic Zuzana Caputova (45), an environmental lawyer and
anti-corruption activist, was sworn in as the EU member's first
female president.
(AFP, 6/15/19)
2019 Sep 3, In Slovakia
far-right lawmaker Milan Mazurek lost his parliament seat after the
country's Supreme Court upheld his conviction for racism. Mazurek
had made illegal racist comments about the Roma community during a
2016 radio broadcast.
(SFC, 9/4/19, p.A2)
2019 Sep 22, In Slovakia tens
of thousands marched in the capital Bratislava calling for a total
ban on abortions in the predominantly Catholic central European
country.
(Reuters, 9/22/19)
2019 Nov 6, Slovakian President
Zuzana Caputova vetoed a new law extending a ban on publishing
opinion polls up to 50 days before elections and vowed to challenge
it at the Constitutional Court if the parliament overturns her veto.
(Reuters, 11/6/19)
2019 Nov 6, Slovakia's
government approved a bill to double a special tax on banks and
extend it indefinitely instead of ending the levy next year, moves
the central bank said would threaten financial stability. The
banking tax was adopted in 2012 to build a buffer against potential
future crises and scheduled to expire at the end of 2020.
(Reuters, 11/6/19)
2019 Nov 13, In western
Slovakia a lorry carrying gravel collided with a passenger bus,
killing 12 people, the country's deadliest road accident in a
decade.
(Reuters, 11/13/19)
2019 Dec 5, Slovakia’s police
said they have charged former PM Robert Fico with racism for his
comments about the embattled Roma minority.
(AP, 12/5/19)
2019 Dec 6, It was reported
that Slovak police have charged former president Andrej Kiska with
tax fraud, stirring up the political scene ahead of an election due
in February.
(Reuters, 12/6/19)
2019 Dec 6, In eastern Slovakia
a gas explosion in an apartment building in Presov killed at least
five people and injured more than 40. Firefighters rescued people
trapped in the building, which officials said is still in danger of
collapse. The death toll soon rose to least seven people. Police
soon charged three people with putting the public in danger over the
gas explosion. One person remained missing.
(AP, 12/6/19)(Reuters, 12/7/19)(Reuters, 12/8/19)
2020 Jan 13, In Slovakia hired
assassin Miroslav Marcek pleaded guilty to the murders of
investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee Martina
Kusnirova in Feb., 2018. Three other defendants, including suspected
mastermind Marian Kocner, pleaded not guilty.
(SFC, 1/14/20, p.A2)
2020 Jan 20, Slovakia said it
has detected its second case of the highly pathogenic H5N8 bird flu
virus at a farm in the west of the country.
(Reuters, 1/20/20)
2020 Feb 5, At least two people
died in Slovakia and the Czech Republic as strong winds, heavy rain
and snow battered central and eastern Europe.
(AP, 2/5/20)
2020 Feb 28, A Polish woman
(32) suspected of being the head of a Polish drug trafficking group
based in Krakow was arrested in Slovakia after a joint operation by
Polish, Hungarian and Slovakian security forces. Police said the
woman had reorganized the gang in 2017 by recruiting members of the
KS Cracovia soccer team's extremist fans to engage in international
drug trafficking.
(Reuters, 3/1/20)
2020 Mar 6, Slovakia announced
its first coronavirus infection.
(AP, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 11, Slovak police said
13 local judges and five other people linked to the main suspect in
the case of a slain investigative journalist have been detained and
charged with corruption and obstruction of justice.
(AP, 3/11/20)
2020 Mar 15, Slovakia reported
54 coronavirus cases, an increase of 10.
(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 27, Slovakia said it
is closing border crossings with Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary
and Austria for the transit of trucks over 7.5 tons delivering
non-essential goods to prevent accidents near the border crossings
where long jams are formed because of lengthy handling by Hungarian
authorities.
(Reuters, 3/27/20)
2020 Apr 1, It was reported
that the 1.2 million Chinese antibody tests that the Slovak
government bought from local middlemen for 15 million euros ($16
million) are inaccurate and unable to detect Covid-19 in its early
stages. China said Slovakia used them incorrectly, and cautioned
against politicizing instances where equipment isn’t up to scratch.
(AP, 4/1/20)
