MORNING NEWS HIGHLIGHTS - Saturday, April 5, 2025 - 9 a.m.

TASR brings a quick morning overview of the most important events seen in Slovakia on the previous day (Friday, April 4): BRATISLAVA - A quiet and relentless battle for historical truth has begun, House Chair Richard Rasi (Voice-SD) declared in his speech at the Slavin Memorial in Bratislava to mark the 80th anniversary of the capital city's liberation from fascism on Friday. According to Rasi, there are many efforts today to rewrite history and humanize fascist ideology. "Let's not allow ideologies that arise from the roots of evil to get reawakened again and flood society with the bitter fruits of hatred. Let's not underestimate the risk of new conflicts, ignorance of our past, or indifference to it," said Raši. The House Chair pointed out that internet is full of links that deny mass exterminations, the existence of concentration camps and villages burnt to the ground such as Ostry Grun and Klak. "This cruel part of history must never repeat in its depraved form," he added. As for the war in Ukraine, Rasi voiced hope that sustainable peace will be found. "We're here at the Slavin today to commemorate history and send out a message of peace and cooperation. I hope that our wish will come true," he claimed. BRATISLAVA - The history of WW2 must unite humanity and those who purposefully forget and ignore what happened during the war act the same way as those who were pulling the trigger, shooting from cannons and dropping bombs, Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) declared in his speech at the Slavin Memorial to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Bratislava from fascism on Friday. "We must fight once again for our historical memory. We can't let anyone take it away from us," stated Fico. In his view, we can't let society forget about young soldiers who died during the liberation of Bratislava, as that would be inappropriate and disrespectful towards WW2 victims. "I pay my respects to every single victim of the WW2," said Fico, underlining that that's why he visited the military cemetery in France and the United States. He plans to visit also London to thank Slovak pilots who served in the Royal Air Force. "The greatest sacrifices were made by nations and states of the former Soviet Union, 21 million people." In his speech, Fico challenged the need to embrace defence hikes. "Why are small countries such as Slovakia being forced to keep pace in armaments and spending with big countries, the geopolitical powers that play their great games in the world?" asked Fico, adding that Slovakia is aware of the responsibility it has for its own security and commitments towards its partners. "It's appropriate to raise a question - shouldn't we ask Slovak citizens in a refendum: Dear Slovak citizens, are you in favor of militarization at the expense of your living standards? The government should do its utmost to prevent the arming to cause further reductions to living standards," claimed Fico. He added that it's necessary to say a clear 'no' to war and 'yes' to peace, as he believes "someone is preparing for war". Prime Minister Fico also criticised ambassadors of the EU countries, who chose not to attend the event due to the presence of Russian and Belarus ambassadors. "Small children can sulk, but the duty of ambassadors is not to sulk but work. The ambassadors must engage in communication and if they have such a great opportunity to meet with ambassadors from other countries, it's their duty to be here," he stated. Russian Ambassador to Slovakia Igor Bratchikov declared in his speech at the Slavin Memorial that the task ahead of us is to preserve the real memory of history. "Without it, no future can be built," he said and voiced his happiness that the nations of Russia and Slovakia share the same truth about WW2. BRATISLAVA - Slovakia will shut down 17 border crossings with Hungary due to the spreading contagion of the foot-and-mouth disease, Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok announced after a session of the crisis team on Friday. The border crossings to be closed are located in the Bratislava, Kosice and Banska Bystrica regions. The aim of the measures is to unburden the police corps and members of the Financial Administration, so that they won't have to patrol the border crossings. In addition, the Interior Ministry will launch random inspections of farms, conducted also with the use of drones. "I'd like to urge all food producers to comply with the measures... We must do our utmost to be able to check the efficiency of our measures, which is why we're shutting down the borders, so as to free up the police for domestic inspections," said Sutaj Estok. He noted that the situation is serious and Slovakia might face the risk of the contagion spreading also to other regions, which would pose an even larger drain on resources and require deployment of more personnel. The presence of foot-and-mouth disease has been confirmed at six farms in southern and western Slovakia - in Medvedov, Narad, Baka, Luc na Ostrove, Plavecky Stvrtok and Jurova. BRUSSELS - Slovakia is fulfilling its obligation to spend 2 percent of GDP on defence and is ready to discuss increasing this amount, though achieving domestic consensus among relevant political parties is a priority, stated Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar after Thursday's NATO foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels. The new head of US diplomacy Marco Rubio, was present at the meeting for the first time. During the working dinner in the NATO-Ukraine format, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas, and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha also joined the ministers. The ministerial meeting, attended by NATO Chief Mark Rutte, was dominated by the topic of increasing defence spending by NATO member countries, which will also be a key issue at the June summit in The Hague. "A proposal to increase defence spending to as much as five percent of GDP is on the table. I declared on behalf of the Slovak Republic that we are fulfilling our obligation to spend two percent on defence and are ready to discuss further increasing this amount," said Blanar after the meeting. Another topic of the meeting was a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Ukraine. The head of Slovak diplomacy reiterated Slovakia's position that this conflict has no military solution, it's necessary to end it with an immediate ceasefire, and continue peace talks until a full peace is achieved. "I supported the new US administration and expressed gratitude to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio for the American peace initiative in the war in Ukraine. None of the member countries at the meeting questioned a peaceful solution to this conflict. The emphasis on this approach came from all sides and received strong support," said Blanar. The Slovak minister also highlighted that Rubio clearly dispelled any doubts that the US might want to "back out" of NATO. On the contrary, Blanar noted that Rubio expressed strong support for the North Atlantic Alliance on behalf of the USA. "Our task in Europe now is to take on a greater share of responsibility for our own security," added Blanar. The Slovak minister left Brussels for Italy on Thursday, where on Friday and Saturday, he will join the delegation of Slovak President Peter Pellegrini. mf