MORNING NEWS HIGHLIGHTS - Tuesday, April 21, 2020 - 9 a.m.

TASR brings a quick morning overview of the most important events seen in Slovakia on the previous day (Monday, April 20): BRATISLAVA - Prime Minister Igor Matovic (OLaNO) took the floor in Parliament on Monday to present the Government Manifesto to MPs. The prime minister called on MPs not to view individual priorities of the Government Manifesto as priorities of particular parties, but to take the manifesto as a joint commitment. MPs of the now opposition Smer-SD left the parliament chamber before the prime minister appeared. "Let's try to fulfil as much as possible of what we've promised to the people. We've promised a lot and it will take a lot of work," said Matovic. He stressed that the governing coalition has a constitutional majority in Parliament and thus has an opportunity to dramatically change Slovakia. BRATISLAVA - The Government Manifesto is unfeasible, head of the opposition Smer-SD party Robert Fico stated on Monday, noting that there isn"t enough money in the state budget to cover the promises contained in the document. At the same time, Fico is of the opinion that the Manifesto doesn"t deal with basic issues concerning the state, such as science and research, the coronavirus pandemic and migration policies. "It"s unreal, schizophrenic, made up. It"s [OLaNO head] Igor Matovic"s science fiction," said the erstwhile prime minister. "It doesn"t deal with what will be happening in the next few weeks and months whatsoever, because they don"t even know what they should do," added Fico. BRATISLAVA - Another patient has died of COVID-19, Health Ministry spokeswoman Zuzana Eliasova reported on Monday, adding that it was a resident of an old people's home in Spisske Bystre (Presov region). Overall, Slovakia has recorded 13 deaths caused by novel coronavirus. Eliasova further said that 251 people have already recovered from COVID-19. Of this number 61 were admitted into hospital and 190 recovered in home isolation. BRATISLAVA - Slovakia reported 12 new cases of coronavirus infection on Sunday (April 19), with 2,458 samples being tested in total, TASR was told by Health Ministry spokesperson Zuzana Eliasova on Monday. BRATISLAVA - The registered unemployment rate in Slovakia stood at 5.19 percent in March, up by 0.16 percentage points (p.p.) month-on-month and by 0.14 p.p. year-on-year, TASR learnt from the latest data released by the Labour, Social Affairs and the Family Centre (UPSVaR) on Monday. The number of jobseekers immediately able to start work stood at 142,993, going up by 3.65 percent y-o-y and almost 3 percent m-o-m. BRATISLAVA - President Zuzana Caputova is viewed as the most trustworthy politician in Slovakia, according to the results of an AKO agency poll showing that she has the trust of 83.6 percent of the respondents. Prime Minister Igor Matovic (OLaNO) finished behind Caputova on 64.7 percent. Parliamentary Chair Boris Kollar (We Are Family) was placed third on 61.6 percent, followed by former premier and incumbent Parliamentary Vice-chair Peter Pellegrini (Smer-SD - 60.9 percent) and Economy Minister Richard Sulik (Freedom and Solidarity/SaS - 50.2 percent). BRATISLAVA - If a general election had taken place in mid-April, the main governing-coalition party OLaNO would have come out on top on 29.9 percent, followed by the opposition Smer-SD on 18.3 percent and We Are Family on 10 percent, according to the results of an AKO poll carried out between April 14-17 on a sample of 1,000 respondents for Novy Cas daily. The first three would have been followed by Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) on 9.7 percent, Progressive Slovakia - 6.5 percent, the far-right People's Party Our Slovakia (LSNS) - 6.4 percent, MKO-MKS - 4.4 percent, the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) - 3.7 percent, For the People - 3 percent, Good Choice and the Slovak National Party (SNS) - both 2.2 percent, Homeland - 1.9 percent, Together - 0.9 percent and Most-Hid - 0.6 percent. BRATISLAVA - The Slovak government is due to launch the first phase of re-opening of some facilities as of Wednesday after they've been closed since March due to the coronavirus, Prime Minister Igor Matovic (OLaNO) said on Monday. In the first phase out of four, shops and service facilities smaller than 300 square metres will be opened, apart from public gastronomy facilities, in which food is sold through a window, open-air sports facilities, open-air markets and car showrooms. am