MORNING NEWS HIGHLIGHTS - Sunday, March 16, 2025 - 9 a.m.

TASR brings a quick morning overview of the most important events seen in Slovakia on the previous day (Saturday, March 15): BRATISLAVA - Students who choose to study fields and programmes at universities where there is the highest demand for experts can receive a scholarship, TASR has learnt from Education Minister Tomas Drucker (Voice-SD). Such fields include electrical engineering, computer science, cybernetics, nursing, engineering, and the first three years of general and dental medicine, as well as specialised areas such as nuclear physics and chemistry, transport, and teacher programmes for physics, chemistry, computer science, and mathematics. "We're talking about up to 1,500 scholarships," explained the minister, adding that this year, 500 first-year, 500 second-year, and 500 third-year students will receive the scholarship. These scholarships are intended for the best students, who can receive €4,000 annually during their bachelor's studies. BRATISLAVA - Speaking on STVR's political talk show 'Saturday Dialogues', Interior Minister and Voice-SD leader Matus Sutaj Estok said that if Parliament is unable to pass beneficial laws from the government, the debate on early election is legitimate, while Christian Democrats (KDH) party leader Milan Majersky blamed the government for failing to address real problems of Slovak people. "If Parliament isn't functional, then questions about early election are legitimate. If Parliament sabotages the government's efforts to help people, it's absolutely legitimate," said Sutaj Estok. Majersky reminded that the settlement of disputes and the election of the House chair are constantly being postponed. "The disagreements within the government coalition are because everyone wants to protect their 'spot', their ministry, position... This is a government of indifference. Indifference to healthcare, education, growing poverty, and rising prices," emphasised the KDH leader. BRATISLAVA - The 'Slovakia' party called on opposition parties to jointly seek the no-confidence motion in Defence Minister Robert Kalinak (Smer-SD), also demanding his departure from politics, accusing him of dishonouring the law regarding a property in Croatia, with party leader Igor Matovic revealing at Saturday's press conference that they have tips on similar cases involving other state officials, including Premier Robert Fico (Smer-SD). "I'm somewhat surprised by the silence of the other opposition parties, because this is the biggest violation of the law and constitutional law. Both in terms of the size of the concealed property and the duration of its concealment, as it has been about eight years since this property was acquired," stated Matovic. According to him, the Slovak opposition has never had such strong evidence of illegal conduct. BRATISLAVA - Nearly half of Slovaks (46 percent) feel uncomfortable sitting next to a Roma fellow passenger during rail or bus travel, according to a survey conducted by the Focus agency for the Office of the Government Proxy for the Roma Communities (USVRK). "The most-readily accepted [Roma] concerned relationships among colleagues, although even in this area up to 30 percent of respondents would be bothered having a Roma as a colleague. A Roma in position of supervisor or superior would be problematic for 43 percent of the respondents. Conversely, 69 percent of the respondents don't see relationships with Roma at the workplace as an obstacle and 53 percent wouldn't be bothered by Roma managers," stated USVRK head Miriam Ziakova. Ziakova also pointed out that 34 percent of respondents wouldn't want their children to attend the same class as Roma children, and 46 percent wouldn't like their children to be friends with Roma children. At the same time, she noted that 40 percent of the respondents stated that they would be bothered by providing health care to Roma, although the majority opinion is that this wouldn't be an obstacle (57 percent). "I would be glad if we, as a society, tried to eliminate prejudices through education and open dialogue," added Government Proxy for Roma Communities Alexander Dasko. The public opinion survey was conducted in December of last year on a representative sample of 1,022 respondents from Slovakia. lin