Gašparovič out, Kiska in

SWEDEN, FINLAND
On sale now
FOCUS
Vol. 20, No. 23
Monday, June 16, 2014 - Sunday, June 29, 2014
of this issue
MPs ignore
Dubovcová
again
NEWS
Assessing the legacy
Despite minimising his role
in his 10 years as president,
some say Ivan Gašparovič
still did some damage via
staunch political partisanship and a loose interpretation of the constitution.
pg 2
BY BEATA BALOGOVÁ
Spectator staff
Pension revision
Rules for the second,
private pension have finally been set, but experts
say the old-age pension
scheme will need another
overhaul.
pg 4
OPINION
Gašparovič’s adieu
In his farewell speech
Gašparovič took a parting
shot at his longtime rival,
the media. Yet, it wasn’t his
countless slips of the
tongue, but rather, the
political culture he fostered
that stirred media criticism.
pg 5
BUSINESS FOCUS
Valuing education
Finland’s Chargé d’Affaires
Henna Knuuttila discusses
her country’s successful
education system, its inhabitants’ thirst for news
and innovation, its economic challenges and
more.
pg 6
Nurturing diversity
Swedish Ambassador Nils
Daag touches on the importance of gender equality,
Slovak-Swedish military
cooperation, addressing the
rise of far-right extremism
in the EU and more.
pg 7
CULTURE
Finland and Sweden
From Finnish tango to
Swedish design, both countries remain active in bringing myriad aspects of their
respective cultures to a receptive Slovak audience.
pgs 6&7
SELECT FOREX RATES
€ benchmark as of June 12
CANADA
CAD 1.47
CZECH REP. CZK 27.42
RUSSIA
RUB 46.45
GREAT BRITAIN GBP 0.80
HUNGARY
JAPAN
POLAND
USA
HUF
JPY
PLN
USD
303.84
138.12
4.10
1.35
Non-partisan Andrej Kiska will be sworn in as president on June 15, becoming the fourth president of the independent Slovak Republic.
Photo: SITA
Gašparovič out,
Kiska in
IVAN Gašparovič, the one-time righthand man of controversial threetime prime minister Vladimír
Mečiar, has wrapped up his decadelong tenure as president and Andrej
Kiska is taking office.
Gašparovič, who became head of
state in 2004, was widely seen as the
lesser of two evils when he faced his
former boss Mečiar in the second
round that year. He will now be replaced by tycoon and philanthropist
Andrej Kiska who defeated Prime
Minister Robert Fico, the official candidate of the ruling Smer in the March
2014 presidential run-off. Kiska
picked up 59.4 percent of the vote, as
compared to Fico’s 40.6 percent.
Kiska, the first-ever independent
candidate with no political background to win the presidency, is to be
sworn in on June 15 with an inauguration programme that features a
lunch in the presidential garden
where he also invited pensioners,
homeless people and children from
orphanages. Observers suggest some
radical departures from how
Gašparovič embraced the presidency.
“I will open the Presidential
Palace for people who need the help
of all of us,” said Kiska, according to
an official release. “At least symbolically, I want to show on the first day
that they will be a priority for me
while serving as president.”
Along with top state officials,
members of parliament, diplomats,
Gašparovič wraps up
decade long tenure;
Kiska raises high
hopes of presidency
BY BEATA BALOGOVÁ
Spectator staff
representatives of academia and
churches, Kiska also invited people
from NGOs, the start-up community, successful Slovak companies and cultural institutions to the
formal evening inaugural reception.
Whistleblowers decorated with the
White Crow award, successful students and families enrolled in the
Dobrý Anjel (Good Angel) charity
programme are also on the guest list.
Kiska said that the list of invited
guests represents the reasons he
entered politics, as he invited people
who are helping others, but also
people who themselves need help.
Meanwhile the outgoing president on June 11 received Fico and his
ministers.
“I am looking forward to having
more free time, but I am convinced
that I will be missing you
somehow,” Gašparovič said on June
11, as quoted by the SITA newswire.
“I will miss the meetings where if
we had problems we called each
other, we came and sought
solutions.”
Gašparovič said that during his
tenure he cooperated mainly with
Fico-led governments. Fico has said
he is convinced that he and Kiska
must cooperate, adding that this
does not mean that they cannot have
different opinions on certain things.
“Mr Gašparovič, too, several
times sent me to hell when I approached him with something and
he said no, he disagrees with it, but it
does not mean that our relations
weren’t correct and super-standard,”
Fico said, as quoted by SITA.
In a recent interview with the
Sme daily, Kiska said he wants to be a
partner of the government and parliament, while according to his own
words he assured Fico during their
recent meeting that ‘I will not be a
president of the opposition, but that
of people’.
Gašparovič gave a 45-minute
farewell speech on June 12 in parliament. While brushing on dozens of
issues, he remained rather general
until directing his criticism at the
performance of the media. He said
the media are biased, politicised and
manipulative, and that the country
is heading towards what Gašparovič
called ‘mediacracy’.
For more information on Andrej Kiska and the tenure of Ivan
Gašparovič please see pages 2, 3, 5
and 11.
LESS than a dozen of 150 parliamentary
deputies listened to Ombudswoman Jana
Dubovcová present her annual report on
June 10. As she discussed the state of human rights in Slovakia for nearly one hour,
Dubovcová spoke to a near empty discussion hall that only began to fill, according
to reports by the Sme daily, when a scheduled vote on the report approached. It was
approved.
“This is the working method of the
Slovak parliament,” Dubovcová said, as
quoted by Sme.
The experience, however, is nothing
new for the ombudswoman, who has tried
in vain to get the government to discuss
her report, which points to serious violations of human rights by state bodies in its
policy toward Roma, including the controversial and violent police raid in a Roma
settlement near Moldava nad Bodvou.
Meanwhile, a global organisation of
human rights guarantors is expressing
concerns that Dubovcová’s work is being
undermined.
See RIGHTS pg 10
Slovak
economy to
accelerate
BY JANA LIPTÁKOVÁ
Spectator staff
THE LATEST prognoses indicate Slovakia is
returning to economic growth, even to
levels high enough to generate new jobs.
Still, the Slovak central bank is warning that
geopolitical tensions and their possible escalation represent a potential risk.
“This is already the third prognosis confirming statements made by several EU representatives that we are somewhere at the
end of the financial and economic crisis; in
the phase of revival,” Prime Minister Robert
Fico said on June 11, adding that the Finance
Ministry is expected to present its prognosis
within a few days. “We are in the phase
when we can count on very positive trends
as well as results at least during the next two
to three years.”
The National Bank of Slovakia (NBS) predicted on June 10 that Slovakia’s GDP would
grow by 2.4 percent in 2014, up from 0.9 percent in 2013. It decreased its growth prognosis by 0.1 percentage point to 3.2 percent
for 2015 and kept its prognosis of 3.5 percent
for 2016, leaving its prediction for development of the jobless rate unchanged at 13.5
percent for 2014 and 12.8 percent for 2015.
See GROW pg 4
2
NEWS
June 16 – 29, 2014
Gašparovič departs
Police recording features judge
THE POLICE recorded phone
calls of Supreme Court judge
Štefan Michálik during a
time when prosecutor
Michal Barila, back in 2010,
discussed with him the release of a man accused of
fraud, police recordings revealed by the Specialised
Criminal Court suggest, according to the Sme daily.
The Specialised Criminal
Court, which started proceedings in the case of the suspicion of corruption, played the
recordings during a public
session.
The recordings suggest
that Barila, who was allegedly only a mediator, discussed with Michálik the release of Ľuboš Kačkovič, who
was in police custody for
fraud. Michálik says he cannot comment on the case as
he does not know the content
of the recordings. However,
he disagrees with how the
police and the prosecutor
have interpreted them, Sme
reported on July 6.
Five people have been
charged in the case, including attorney Ladislav Ščury,
who was the district chairman of the Most-Híd party
in Čadca before the affair
came to light. After he was
charged, the party withdrew his membership.
While Barila has been
charged, Michálik has not
since the Constitutional
Court refused to surrender
him to prosecution, according to Sme.
The police say that
Kačkovič, who was at that
time in custody, asked for release, offering a bribe of at
least €30,000. Ščury allegedly gave the money to
Barila during a meeting with
their joint friend Peter J. According to the investigation,
Barila then gave the money
to a judge. All of them deny
the accusations.
When planning the alleged bribe, Barila complained to Peter J. about
how stressful the whole
case is, the investigation
suggests.
“It is very tiring for me,
very stressful,” Barila said in
one published record. “But
what can I do? We have to
help our friends.”
Barila said that the conversation was about his ill
daughter and that Peter J. arranged an examination for
her with a doctor. He refused
to comment on any other
conversations.
According to the recordings, when discussing the issue over the phone, all the
people involved were being
cautious; Barila stressed that
no one should be called by
name and preferred personal
meetings instead of phone
calls. However, the content
of their calls match up with
the police story, according to
Sme.
Bus accident claims four lives
FOUR teenage girls were
killed in an accident involving a bus carrying secondary-school students on
the D1 cross-country highway between Piešťany and
Trnava on June 6. Several of
their classmates and teachers suffered serious injuries.
The investigation of the
accident is still underway,
but preliminary findings
suggest that the accident
was most likely caused by a
failure on the part of the
driver rather than a technical problem with the vehicle,
the TASR newswire reported
on June 9.
A total of 31 passengers,
two of whom were teachers,
were travelling on the bus
when the accident occurred.
The students of a sports secondary grammar school in
Trnava were on their way
back from an educational
trip to the Orava region in
northern Slovakia.
The injured were transported to nearby hospitals in
Trnava and Piešťany, with
two being sent to the
Children’s Faculty Hospital
with Polyclinics in Bratislava. TASR reported on June
9 that while three people remain in the Trnava Faculty
Hospital, the other patients
have already been released.
The police have charged
the driver with general endangerment and submitted a
proposal to take him into
custody. The prosecutor’s office, however, rejected the
request, said Štefan
Čechovič, head of the regional police headquarters in
Trnava, as reported by TASR.
The police officers have
heard the witnesses and
found that the driver was not
driving more than 97 kilometres per hour at the time
of the accident. When the
vehicle tipped over, its speed
was 67 kilometres per hour,
TASR wrote.
In response to the tragic
weekend of June 6-8, during
which 14 people died on Slovak roads, the police announced there would be more
officers patrolling Slovakia’s
roads, appearing even in
places where they have normally kept a small presence,
and issuing stricter fines for
undisciplined drivers, the
Sme daily reported.
As many as 117 people
have died on Slovak roads so
far this year, a significantly
higher number compared
with last year, when the
death toll reached 65 by early
June, according to Sme.
Compiled by Spectator staff
side of Fico and Smer,”
Mesežnikov said, adding that
“he has not used, in my opinion, the chances that the presidential post offers for creating
a different platform that
would help to solve problems”.
Kusý, too, has objected to
Gašparovič’s cosy relationship
with Smer.
“He openly identified with
Smer and its concept while
suggesting to the public that
he would do what Smer wants
him to do,” Kusý told The
Slovak Spectator.
BY BEATA BALOGOVÁ
Spectator staff
THE REFUSAL to appoint Jozef
Čentéš to the post of general
prosecutor after he was lawfully elected by parliament, a
cosy relationship with the
Smer party and a formal approach to the presidential office are among the failings
political analysts addressed by
The Slovak Spectator listed
when assessing the decadelong performance of Ivan
Gašparovič as Slovakia’s head
of state. When asked to name
some positive contributions,
political scientist and president of the Institute for Public
Affairs
(IVO)
Grigorij
Mesežnikov said he does not
see much. However, in situations where it was necessary
to confirm Slovakia’s trans-Atlantic solidarity, Gašparovič
mostly did his job, he said.
Gašparovič was a president who did not deeply engage
in anything, as he preferred
formal representation, “shaking hands and welcoming
guests”, said political scientist
Miroslav Kusý, who added
that even so, his “appearances
were frequently problematic”.
Gašparovič,
who
has
wrapped up his tenure as president after serving on the job
for a decade, will be replaced by
tycoon and philanthropist Andrej Kiska who defeated Prime
Minister Robert Fico, the official candidate of the ruling
Smer in the March 2014 presidential election’s second round.
The outgoing president
made it to the top state office in
2004, widely seen as the lesser
of two evils when he faced his
former boss, the controversial
three-time prime minister
Vladimír Mečiar in the second
round. Gašparovič was re-elected in 2009 with significant
support from the Smer party.
Gašparovič’s start and the
third president
Gašparovič, who was born
in Poltár, near Lučenec in
central Slovakia, graduated
from the Law School of
Comenius University in 1964.
He served as general prosecutor
of
Czechoslovakia
between 1990 and 1992 and in
1992 he became speaker of the
Slovak parliament, at that
time
still
within
the
Czechoslovak
federation.
After the split of Czechoslovakia co-orchestrated by the
Movement for a Democratic
Slovakia (HZDS), of which
Gašparovič was a member, he
became speaker of the newly
sovereign Slovak parliament
and served in that post
between 1994 and 1998.
During the 1990s, he was a
staunch ally of Mečiar, whose
party has since slipped into
political oblivion. Gašparovič
defended the frequently indefensible policies of the
Mečiar governments, which
were regular targets of inter-
Čentéš controversy
Ivan Gašparovič
national criticism. Gašparovič
might have remained Mečiar’s
political right hand for much
longer, had the HZDS boss not
removed his sidekick from the
party’s candidate list for the
2002 parliamentary elections.
At the time Mečiar said that
Gašparovič could run for a seat
in the European Parliament.
Gašparovič retorted that this
was like offering a Slovak citizen the chance to run for a
seat in the United States Congress. Gašparovič not only declined to run for the European
Parliament, he quit the HZDS
and set up his own party, the
similarly-named Movement
for Democracy (HZD).
After failing to make a
mark at the 2002 general election, Gašparovič’s career improbably took off after he vanquished his former boss in the
2004 presidential election.
Gašparovič gained 59.9 percent of the votes in the second
round of the 2004 election,
while Mečiar received just over
40 percent. This result followed
the unexpected first-round defeat of then-foreign minister
Eduard Kukan of the Slovak
Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ), who had been considered the favourite in the
race, with many centre-right
voters staying at home, assuming that Kukan was set to win
and thus sending Gašparovič
and Mečiar to the second round.
“He was elected to this post
rather accidentally; only very
few had assumed that he
[Gašparovič] would beat Eduard
Kukan in 2004,” Mesežnikov
told The Slovak Spectator,
adding that some people voted
for him simply because they
were against Mečiar.
Gašparovič, Smer
and a second term
In 2006, when Fico and his
Smer party were elected,
Gašparovič began preparing
the ground for his own reelection. He was notably
friendly towards the Fico government when signing the
laws that Fico and his ruling
coalition allies produced. The
fact that he did so despite the
Photo: Sme
presence of the Mečiar-led
HZDS in the ruling coalition
showed how politics in Slovakia often takes strange turns.
Gašparovič won the 2009
presidential election after collecting 55.53 percent of the
votes in the second round. His
challenger, Iveta Radičová, the
then-joint candidate of the parliamentary opposition parties,
won 44.46 percent of the vote
with a 51.67 percent turnout. In
the 2009 presidential election,
Gašparovič owed a large part of
his success to Fico even though
Radičová, who shortly thereafter became Slovakia’s prime
minister, garnered considerable support.
During the election campaign Gašparovič attacked
Radičová for being a member
of the SDKÚ and for the support she received from her
party. Despite Gašparovič’s
renewed claims that he was
running as an independent
candidate, the SITA newswire
published a video recording
from a Smer party meeting in
Košice, which featured the
president. He was not aware
that he was being filmed.
“We are alone here, so I can
say that I am practically a
member, and my failure would
be the failure of Smer,”
Gašparovič said. “If I am not
elected, nothing happens;
maybe from a personal point of
view it would be better for me,
I will have time for my family.
But it is now about Smer.”
When confronted by reporters about this statement,
Gašparovič first denied having
said any such thing, clearly oblivious to the video recording.
Later, his spokesman tried to
finesse Gašparovič’s statements, suggesting that the
president had never denied
that his social programme was
close to Smer’s.
Gašparovič has failed to
contribute to the perception
of the presidential post as a
non-partisan, independent
and inclusive position, said
Mesežnikov.
“Even if he sometimes
claimed it as his goal, he has
not done it, and he always
entered party politics on the
Mesežnikov and Kusý
singled out Gašparovič’s refusal to appoint Jozef Čentéš to
the post of general prosecutor
after he was lawfully elected
by parliament as among the
president’s biggest failings.
The term of the previous
general prosecutor, Dobroslav
Trnka, expired in February
2011, but it took until June of
that year for parliament to
elect Čentéš as his replacement. However, Gašparovič
then refused to appoint him
despite the Constitutional
Court ruling in October 2011
that his election had been constitutional. He faced extensive
criticism from the opposition
and political analysts for refusing the appointment and then
for presenting what they said
were insufficient reasons for
formally rejecting him.
Kusý suggested that “he
was toying with the constitution and its interpretation”
while taking a rather deliberate approach.
Contributions
In terms of where
Gašparovič took the status of
the presidential office, Kusý
suggested it was “definitely
towards lesser importance”.
“He showed that even if he
[the president] is not heard
and seen, he is not missed by
anyone and nothing is really
happening,” Kusý told The
Slovak Spectator.
Both, Mesežnikov and Kusý
struggled when asked to name
positive contributions that
Gašparovič made to the post.
As far as foreign policy is
concerned, Gašparovič was
more or less in line with the
country’s basic foreign-political and security priorities and
“there he came across rather
positively,” said Mesežnikov,
adding that “he actually was
not the one who co-created the
foreign policy, but he only followed the defined priorities,
and I have to add, more so than
the prime minister”.
However, according to
Mesežnikov, Gašparovič has
not been as pro-active as he
could have been.
“I do not think there were
any,” Kusý said in reference to
his positive contributions to
the presidential office.
Radka Minarechová
contributed to this report
NEWS
www.spectator.sk
Kiska: expectations high
Kiska
has
repeatedly
stressed that he wants some
key people to stay in the office,
mentioning head of protocol
Peter Priputen and the head of
the office, Ján Šoth.
“I’m not up for any revolution there,” Kiska told the
Trend weekly with regard to
the president’s office.
BY MICHAELA
TERENZANI
Spectator staff
FOR the first time in
Slovakia’s 20-plus-year-long
history the country is getting
a political greenhorn for a
president. Yet, Andrej Kiska
raises high hopes among the
population and observers as
he succeeds Ivan Gašparovič
in the presidential chair.
“The credit of trust [he received in the election] is very
high,” political analyst Grigorij Mesežnikov told The Slovak
Spectator, noting that no nonpartisan candidate has ever
managed to outnumber the
most popular politician in the
country by 19 percent, as
Kiska did in the run-off of the
presidential election against
Prime Minister Robert Fico.
Kiska might not have any
political experience, but he
definitely possesses other
kinds of experience and qualities that might help him to become a good president, observers believe. Besides, the firstever non-political president
can finally make sense of the
direct election of the president
in the country. The public’s
expectations for Kiska are high
as he promises to open up the
office to the problems of ordinary people, make changes that
fall within his power and possibly improve things in various
areas of state administration,
particularly the judiciary.
“I consider the most important [priority] to return authority and trust to the presidential office,” Kiska told The
Slovak Spectator as a presidential candidate. “People
must feel that the president is
standing behind them; that it
is a person who will stand behind them and would urge the
government and parliament
when they do not fulfil their
duties towards the citizens.”
Inexperienced in politics
Kiska claims he has been
preparing intensively for the
country’s top post. The judiciary is set to be his priority,
which falls under the presidential powers. He has already
announced that in the first
week of his presidency he will
hold a press conference concerning all the steps he is
planning to take in this area.
“There are many problems
waiting for me right at the
start – the judiciary, the constitutional judges, the unfinished election of the Supreme
Court president,” Kiska said
in an interview with the SITA
newswire.
Kiska’s lack of experience
in politics should not prove to
be problematic for him in the
presidential office, as it is
easy to overcome, analysts
agree. On the contrary, the
fact that he has no background in a political party is
an advantage for a president
Slovakia’s new face abroad
Andrej Kiska
who wants to avoid being
biased, Mesežnikov said.
“I presume that as a man
who was successful as a top
manager, he can easily gain
experience and use his
qualities,” Mesežnikov told
The Slovak Spectator, adding
that Kiska’s public statements before and after the
election suggest that he is
familiar with society’s main
problems and the country’s
foreign policy, and is prodemocratic.
The advantage of Kiska
entering the office without
any political bias is that he
can create his own line,
without being constrained in
any way by some political
past,
political
analyst
Miroslav Kusý said. That way,
he can bring a breath of fresh
air to the Slovak political
scene, even though this is not
exactly what happened with
all non-partisans who appeared on the Slovak political
scene in recent history. Kusý
mentioned Igor Matovič, the
leader of the Ordinary People
and Independent Personalities movement, who entered
parliament like “a loose
cannon”.
“But Kiska is not the type,
based on what we’ve seen so
far,” Kusý opined. “He is a judicious man who seems to
have very clear ideas about
the way he wants to work,
and those ideas seem positive
for the public.”
All the president’s men
On the other hand, the
lack of political background
could prove to be a handicap,
Kusý conceded, as in the presidential office, experience in
both domestic and foreign
politics are somewhat expected. If that should turn out to
be a weakness, Kiska can turn
it into a strength if he puts together a solid team of experts.
“As did Václav Havel, who
also had no political experience; but he surrounded himself with people with a name
among the public, both domestic and global,” Kusý told
The Slovak Spectator.
Photo: Sme
Observers generally agree
that Kiska’s performance will
depend on the quality of the
team he chooses.
“Fortunately, thanks to the
fact that I’m not a candidate of
any political party, there are no
pressures behind me forcing me
to accept or place anyone,” Kiska
told SITA, calling it a great advantage that he can choose his
collaborators independently.
Kiska introduced his team
of six advisors and a spokesperson in an interview with the
private broadcaster Rádio Expres two weeks before the inauguration.
“We can call it the Magnificent Seven that will come with
me to the palace,” Kiska said, as
quoted by the TASR newswire.
The president’s spokesman
will be Peter Petrus, a reporter
of the TV JOJ network broadcaster.
The team of advisors includes some distinguished
names, such as former Constitutional Court president Ján
Mazák, Slovakia’s top expert on
constitutional law, who will be
his main expert on law and
justice, as well as former diplomat Martin Bútora, who recently acted as an advisor for
the NATO general secretary,
and with whom Kiska plans to
consult on foreign policy and
sociological issues.
Other members of Kiska’s
election team include Tomáš
Lehotský, Rado Baťo, Sergej
Michalič and Roman Krpelan.
Baťo, a former journalist,
headed Kiska’s election campaign. He also worked as
spokesman for former prime
minister
Iveta
Radičová.
Michalič has been working for
the Slovak Democratic and
Christian Union (SDKÚ). Kiska
now wants the two of them to
help with domestic and foreign
policy.
Krpelan is former deputy
editor-in-chief of the Sme daily
and former advisor to one-time
health minister Ivan Uhliarik.
In his service for the president
he will secure communication
with the public. Lehotský, who
has been working with Kiska
for 10 years, will be responsible
for management.
Even though the media
have been paying attention
mainly to Kiska’s pledges and
ambitions on the domestic
scene, the presidential powers
are perhaps greater when it
comes to foreign policy. Indeed, Kiska’s first task after the
inauguration is his scheduled
participation at the Visegrad
Group presidential summit in
Budapest on June 16.
Slovakia’s foreign policy
comes into focus particularly in
light of the Ukrainian crisis at
the moment when Kiska is assuming the presidential office.
“The face of Slovakia before
the Russian-Ukrainian crisis
did not differ that much over
the past years from its Visegrad
partners,” Mesežnikov told The
Slovak Spectator, noting that
recently, this has changed.
“I expect Kiska to return
Slovak foreign policy, also in
this context, to its original
track, meaning greater solidarity with our Visegrad partners
in this situation, particularly
with Poland,” Mesežnikov said.
Opening up the office
Mesežnikov admits that his
expectations are high considering Kiska’s performance in the
office. He expects the new president to turn the office into
“something other than just a
sort of post office for the ruling
party to mediate and handle
political orders”, and to be
more balanced than his predecessor Gašparovič, who according to Mesežnikov cared
mainly about his relations with
the ruling political party.
“Gašparovič’s
priorities
were elsewhere,” Kusý said,
pointing to the outgoing
president’s passion for hunting, car racing, ice-hockey and
football.
“When he was elected the
second time, he did not come to
his staff meeting, because
Canada was playing, so he was
watching a hockey match and
he only came when it ended, an
hour after midnight,” Kusý
said, recounting an anecdote
about Gašparovič’s presidency.
“In the case of Mr Kiska it
appears he wants to fully devote himself to the post, that it
will be his real priority,” Kusý
said. “Because such a post requires personal sacrifice too.”
Kiska, who is a father of
two small children, claims he is
ready for this.
“I have no important hobby
that would consume my free
time,” he told SITA.
Radka Minarechová
contributed to the report
June 16 – 29, 2014
3
Kiska: Slovakia's
self-made man
BY MICHAELA
TERENZANI
Spectator staff
THE SLOVAK Kennedy is
what the Trend weekly called
Andrej Kiska, who takes the
presidential office on June 15.
Kiska in fact admitted
that John F. Kennedy was his
favourite president and it is
hardly a coincidence that
Kiska found inspiration in an
American. His life in many
ways resembles the proverbial American dream: born in
the town of Poprad under the
High Tatras, he started as a
guest worker in the United
States in the early 1990s, almost immediately after the
fall of communism. He spent
18 months abroad, doing
cleaning jobs or working at a
petrol station before returning to his homeland and experiencing a failure in business which, in line with the
American business philosophy, left him broke but
ready to push on.
“Yes, it did not work out,
but after I returned from
America I did not doubt for a
second that I wanted to start
a business,” Kiska said in an
interview with the Sme daily
in 2007. “I had almost no
money then, but I had an
immense appetite for it. I
saw it work there; that
everyone of us has internal
predispositions for some
things. A person has to find
within themselves what
they are good at.”
Perhaps thanks to his
persistence, he finally found
a hole in the market and together with his brother
founded a hire-purchase
company, Triangel, the first
one on the market, and then
its competitor, Quatro.
During the presidential
campaign Kiska faced criticism for his past business
dealings involving Triangel
and Quatro, with his critics
likening them to a loan shark
operation. Kiska argues that
his model indeed created a
system of hire-purchase loans
with affordable instalments,
so “that people were able to
buy a television or a car, because not everybody had the
available cash to do so”.
The companies harvested
success on the market and
attracted thousands of clients. In 2005, Kiska sold his
shares and became a rich
man. Subsequently, he founded the Dobrý Anjel (Good
Angel) charity project, along
with his friend, businessman Igor Brossmann.
See PATH pg 11
Can Kiska, Fico
work together?
BY MICHAELA
TERENZANI
Spectator staff
AS OF June 15, Slovakia will
have a president and a prime
minister with a history that
hardly lays a good basis for
their constructive cooperation. The pair faced each other in the run-off of the presidential election, which was
preceded by two weeks of intensive, and at times very
unpleasant campaigning.
As Robert Fico kept accusing Andrej Kiska of links
with the Church of Scientology and usury, Kiska did not
hesitate to announce on the
night when the results of the
election’s first round were
published that he was filing
a criminal complaint for the
anonymous negative campaigning that had been
waged against him.
Fico said many things
that he should never have
said, but since it happened, it
cannot be undone, political
analyst Grigorij Mesežnikov,
president of the non-governmental Institute for Public Affairs (IVO), told The
Slovak Spectator, following
Kiska’s election. There is
however no reason “to bring
all this into institutional
cooperation”, he added.
Indeed, ever since he was
elected, Kiska has stressed
that he wants to act as a
counter-balance to the government, while having constructive relations with the
administration and particularly with the prime minister. He repeated that after he
met Fico about a week before
his inauguration, calling
their meeting constructive
and even pleasant in an interview with the Sme daily.
“I would be very glad if
there was a dialogue going
on between the president
and the government, which
works best when people
agree on regular meetings,”
Kiska told Sme on June 10.
He did, however, admit that
Fico expressed a concern that
Kiska wants to be in an opposition force to the government.
Tension expected
Despite the good intentions expressed by Kiska,
Mesežnikov conceded he expects problems with Fico being the one to provoke conflicts, “since he is known to
be quite vengeful, very personal, combative and
quarrelsome”.
See GOV pg 11
4
BUSINESS / NEWS
June 16 – 29, 2014
SE gets loan from Sberbank
SLOVAKIA’S dominant
power producer, Slovenské
Elektrárne (SE), will get a
loan at €870 million for 7.5
years from Russian Sberbank. The money should be
spent on buying nuclear fuel
or technologies and completing the nuclear power plant
in Mochovce, but also to pay
off part of its previous loans,
the Sme daily reported in its
June 11 issue.
Several media outlets reported in connection with
the loan that the transaction
comes at a time when Italian
firm Enel officially said that
its share in SE is included
among the property it might
sell to decrease its €40-billion debt.
“The successful conclusion of this contract is an important milestone in boosting the company’s financial
stability and support to our
growth plans in the central
European region,” SE CEO
Luca D’Agnese said, as quoted
by the SITA newswire, after
signing the loan contract on
June 10 in Moscow.
Sberbank CEO Herman
Gref added that energy has
always been one of the key
sectors of financing for the
bank, and “we are glad that
we are expanding cooperation
with one of the biggest global
energy holdings, despite turbulent times experienced by
the Russian economy”, as reported by SITA.
“We plan to continue
boosting our cooperation
with major European
companies,” Gref added.
Such a huge loan is exceptional for the central
European region, especially
when offered by a single
bank, Sme wrote, adding
that, for example, a €200
million loan taken out by the
Slovnaft oil refinery came
from eight banks in total.
Meanwhile, Slovak media reported on Enel’s plans
to sell some of its property to
decrease a high debt.
“SE is not the sole such
acquisition,” D’Agnese told
the press, as quoted by the
Hospodárske Noviny daily.
Enel entered SE in 2006,
after it bought a 66-percent
share for €840 million. The
remaining 34-percent stake
is in the hands of the government privatisation
agency the National Property
Fund (FNM), whose shareholder rights are executed by
the Economy Ministry.
Slovakia’s Economy Minister Tomáš Malatinský said
he has no official information about the intention of
Enel to sell its SE shares. He
only knows that the Italians
placed the plant on the list of
firms it might sell, as reported by SITA.
According to the media,
possible buyers of the SE
shares could include Russian
Rosatom or Czech ČEZ.
Malatinský admitted that
if Russians enter SE it may
deepen Slovakia’s dependence on Russia.
The government can
guide the negotiations with
the Italian investor also since
there is no agreement on
whether Enel should still pay
the state the rest for the
privatisation of SE and how
much. The minister said that
it could theoretically sell the
firm if the issue remains unresolved. However, the Italian investor would risk a
lower price in this case, as
reported by Sme.
Višňové tunnel to be finished by 2019
THE NATIONAL Highway
Company (NDS) signed an
agreement over the construction of the D1 crosscountry highway stretch
between Lietavská Lúčka and
Dubná Skala on June 11. Part
of the section is the longest
highway tunnel in Slovakia,
the Višňové. The construction should be completed in
2019. Preparation for the
construction of the tunnel
took 16 years.
“I am glad that the construction of the most crucial
section with the Višňové
tunnel can start as of
tomorrow,” said Transport
Minister Ján Počiatek, as
quoted by the SITA newswire.
The stretch will be built
by a consortium of Italian
company Salini Impregilo
and Slovak firm Dúha,
owned by businessman
Miroslav Remeta, for €410
million, SITA wrote.
The stretch is important
for the highway so as to
avoid the road under Strečno
Castle, where traffic jams of-
ten occur, the Hospodárske
Noviny daily wrote. After its
completion, the travel time
between Žilina and Vrútky
may be cut by about 23
minutes.
Moreover, the new road
will increase the safety of
drivers, Ľubomír Palčák of
the Research Institute of
Transport in Žilina told
Hospodárske Noviny.
Dúha did not win the
competition by placing the
lowest bid. The construction
firm Skanska wanted to build
the stretch for €338 million,
but was excluded from the
tender by the Public Procurement Office (ÚVO) because of
technical problems with tunnel exits, the Sme daily reported back in April. The company with the second lowest
bid, Doprastav, which offered
€382 million, was excluded
because of its participation in
a cartel agreement signed in
2005, according to
Hospodárske Noviny.
Compiled by Spectator staff
Rules for payment of
private pensions set
Aging population
forces Slovakia to
revise its pension
system
BY JANA LIPTÁKOVÁ
Spectator staff
AFTER nine and a half years
since the robust pension reform and the launch of the socalled second, private pension
pillar, the rules for paying pensions from this pillar have finally been set. While retirees
will receive the first pensions
from the second pillar in January, it is already apparent that
the Slovak old-age pension
scheme will need another revamp.
“An annuity revision was
born bringing a responsible
solution to the benefit of savers
and supporting the long-term
sustainability of the pension
system,” Labour Minister Ján
Richter said after parliament
adopted the revision on June 5,
as cited by the TASR newswire.
There are three forms of
payments from the second pillar: lifelong pensions paid out
by insurance companies, socalled programme withdrawal
(the scheme for payment of
saved funds by a pension fund
management company) and a
temporary pension to be paid
out by insurance companies.
The revision was passed
after a discussion over what
share pensioners should draw
from the sum they saved in the
second pillar via lifelong pen-
The retirement age is expected to increase.
sions and how much they can
draw based on their own will.
Originally the Labour Ministry
proposed allowing programme
withdrawal only to pensioners
whose entitlement for the oldage pension from the first, payas-you-go, pillar is four times
the subsistence minimum, or
those who receive a combined
pension from the first and
second pillar exceeding this
level.
For now, that amounts to
about €800. But the adopted legislation allows programme
withdrawal for pensioners
whose combined pensions
from the first and second pillar
exceed the pensions they
would have received from the
pay-as-you-go pillar if they had
not entered the second pillar.
Presently, this comes to about
€550 and represents a wage
level of 1.25 times the average
wage in Slovakia, i.e. about
€1,030.
This means that in 2015,
approximately 12 percent of
savers should be able to with-
Photo: Sme
draw part of the second pillar’s
savings, while this share
should increase to 20 percent in
the following years.
Another change drafted by
the Labour Ministry pertains to
inheriting money saved in the
second pillar. While the ministry originally proposed to allow savings from the second
pillar to be inherited only until
the point at which the saver
bought a lifelong pension from
a private insurer, the revision
introduces a seven-year period
during which surviving relatives will inherit the pension
that the deceased saver would
have received in the time remaining until the end of the
seven-year period after the
lifelong pension was purchased.
When buying a lifelong
pension from an insurance
company, the saver will have
to decide whether to have his
or her pension indexed, i.e. increased by a certain amount
each year, and whether, in the
event of the saver’s death, his
or her spouse and children will
receive survivor’s pensions. All
of these decisions will affect
the exact sum of the pension
that the saver will receive.
Savers entitled to receive
pensions from the second pillar will be offered to purchase
lifelong pensions from private
insurers via the central electronic offer system, while
those savers who receive no offers due to excessively low savings will be able to draw their
money through programme
withdrawal or in the form of a
temporary pension.
Until now, one had to save
money in the second pillar for
at least 10 years to draw money
from it, but parliament has
eliminated this requirement.
As of the beginning of 2015, the
only condition will be to reach
retirement age, which is now
62. Thus, about 3,000 savers
will be entitled to apply for the
pension from the capitalisation pillar as of the start of 2015.
It is expected that the first
pensions will not be high, as
the clients of pension fund
management companies only
have about €5,000 in their accounts. This means that they
will not receive more than €30
a month from their pension
from the first pillar, the Sme
daily wrote.
The average old-age pension in Slovakia amounted to
€399 at the end of May, which
was €9.9 more than in May
2013. The number of retirees in
Slovakia receiving old-age pensions exceeded 1 million,
which was 25,000 more people
than one year ago.
See AGE pg 10
GROW: Inflation still stagnating
Continued from pg 1
“If the GDP growth exceeds 3 percent,
some experts claim, then processes leading to the creation of jobs and a reduction
in unemployment will begin,” said Fico.
The central bank pointed out that
Slovakia’s economy remains vulnerable to
increased geopolitical tensions between
the European Union and Russia.
Ján Tóth, the NBS vice-governor, introduced a special forecast based on the precondition that gas supplies from Russia to
Europe would be not reduced, but an escalation in geopolitical tension would reflect in
higher oil prices, the weakening of the Russian currency, the reduction of foreign demand, the decline of general confidence in
Europe and thus also a lower appetite to invest. This may bring a reduction of
Slovakia’s GDP by 1.4 percent in 2014 and by
2.9 percent in 2015, while inflation might
increase. If the gas supplies were cut by 15
percent and all sectors of Slovakia were to
feel this reduction, GDP might even decrease by 3.3 percent.
In its regular prediction the NBS reduced its prediction of the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) for 2014 from
0.2 percent to 0.1 percent, while it prognosticates HICP at 1.6 percent in 2015 and 1.9
percent in 2016 and, thus, the inflation rate
will be closer to the 2-percent target.
When commenting on the low inflation rate in Slovakia, Vladimír Vaňo, chief
analyst with Sberbank, said that the record
low inflation, including temporary shortterm deflation, has in the short term the
slightly positive effect of boosting the real
growth of wages given the momentum of
ongoing nominal wage hikes.
“Hence, but only in the short term, it is
a slightly positive contribution to this
year’s recovery in domestic consumer
demand,” Vaňo told The Slovak Spectator,
adding that the problem with the deflationary spiral will start if the negative development of consumer prices becomes a
long-term phenomenon.
However, according to him, even
short-term negative growth of consumer
prices might have negative consequences
on the development of public finances and
public debt, as the state budget assumed
nominal development of sales and hence
also indirect tax revenues in the environment of positive inflation. Likewise, extremely low or even negative inflation is
narrowing the difference between real and
nominal GDP growth, with the latter having an unfavourable effect on the calculation of the relative public debt.
Inflation statistics
After three months of consecutive
decline in consumer prices, May has
brought an expected halt when prices increased by 0.2 percent month on month,
bringing the headline inflation to zero,
based on data of the Statistics Office published on June 12.
Bank analysts see prices of food and
transport as behind this development,
which increased by 1.1 percent and 0.6
percent month on month, respectively.
“These two categories of consumption make up a big share of expenditures
of Slovak households and this is why
Slovakia’s inflation is sensitive to these
items,” Boris Fojtík, economic analyst at
Tatra Banka, wrote in a memo.
Fojtík expects that prices might increase only at the end of the year. With
respect to the development of inflation,
Tatra Banka also lowered its inflation
prediction to 0.1 percent for 2014, which
would be a historic low.
Reduced gas prices, which Fico indicated on June 11, may take inflation even
lower.
To read the whole story,
please go to www.spectator.sk.
OPINION / NEWS
www.spectator.sk
QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
“I will miss the meetings where if we had problems we called
each other, and we came and sought solutions.”
President Ivan Gašparovič when saying goodbye to PM Robert Fico
and the ministers of his cabinet.
Gašparovič, Ivan
BY LUKÁŠ FILA
Special to the Spectator
SLOVAK WORD
IF THERE were ever an instance of Sophie’s choice in
reverse, it was in the second
round of the Slovak 2004 presidential election. How do you
choose between two men,
neither of whom you want? In
the end, Ivan Gašparovič beat
his former boss Vladimír
Mečiar and managed to hold
the office for two terms. On
June 15, Gašparovič will enter
political retirement. What
will he be remembered for?
1 - “Gusto, come finish it.
They’re calling me to see that
old d--k.” Gašparovič always
claimed that he said “starého
uja” (old man) not “starého
chuja”, when he asked
Augustín Marián Húska to take
over the parliamentary session
so that he could go welcome
president Michal Kováč. But
most remained unconvinced,
and the incident from 1996,
when
tensions
between
Gašparovič’s HZDS and the
head of state were extremely
high, has become legendary.
2 - Throwing František
Gaulieder out of parliament.
Foul language was not the
only way Gašparovič got into
trouble as speaker of parliament. The unconstitutional
ousting of an MP who dared
to leave the HZDS was another. Even this disregard for the
rule of law didn’t prevent
him from furthering his career.
3 - Defeating Mečiar. It
wasn’t the abuse of secret
services, wild privatisation
or breaches of the constitution that eventually drove
Gašparovič
away
from
Mečiar. It was the fact that in
2002 he wasn’t going to get a
good spot on the party’s elec-
OF THE WEEK
tion ballot. So began a rivalry
which reached its peak two
years later, when Gašparovič
surprisingly made it into the
second round of the presidential elections, which he
then won thanks in great
part to the votes of people
who resented what Mečiar
(and Gašparovič with him)
did to the country in the
1990s. The victory ensured
Slovakia’s smooth entry into
NATO and the EU.
4 - “Out of the way!” In
another display of good
manners Gašparovič shoved
PM Iveta Radičová by an elevator following a hockey
game. His spokesperson later
called it “a joke”.
5 - Blocking Jozef Čentéš.
The most significant decision of Gašparovič’s second
term came when he refused
to appoint Čentéš for general
prosecutor. The move redefined the role of the president in what is traditionally
a parliamentary democracy
and later helped Smer take
control over the prosecution.
Otherwise, there is not
much to go into the history
books and encyclopaedias.
Let’s hope Andrej Kiska does
better.
Gašparovič bids farewell
Gašparovič mentioned the criticism he received for his unwillingness to appoint general
prosecutor-elect Jozef Čentéš to the post, stating
he still believes that the decision was right.
After listing the successes of his tenure,
Gašparovič focused on the problems of the country. He pointed to extremist statements which
have started to become part of mainstream politics and poor food independence, which is partly
caused by EU agriculture politics, he said.
He also mentioned bad health care in Slovakia, partially blaming the present system of
health insurance companies. He also likened
marginalised Roma communities to a ticking
time bomb.
“A long-term solution to social problems on
the part of the Roma communities ... can only be
attained as a two-way process,” he added.
The key problems of Slovak society are high
long-term unemployment rates and economic
polarisation, Gašparovič said, adding that families and the institution of marriage are also under
pressure.
“New forms of cohabitation will have to
provide arguments about their relevance,”
Listing problems
Gašparovič said, “referring not only to the imGašparovič began his finale with his cam- portant criteria of the personal freedom of two
paign credo: “I think nationally and feel partners, but also to the criteria of children’s fusocially.” He added that as president he saw the ture and the reproduction of mankind.”
function as a mediator, not a judge. During his 10
years in the position, he successfully cooperated
Compiled by Spectator staff
with four governments and parliaments, experiencing two early falls in February 2006 and OctoTo read the whole story, please
ber 2011, he said.
visit www.spectator.sk.
IN HIS exit speech, President Ivan Gašparovič listed successes and nearly a dozen issues he said
that Slovakia is dealing with. While no mistakes
or regrets were noted, there were some parting
shots at what he called a politicised media.
Gašparovič said goodbye to the government
in his official seat in Grassalkovich Palace on June
11. During the ceremony the organisers failed to
play the prepared festive music and Gašparovič
said in response that his farewell to the prime
minister and the cabinet need not be official. He
pushed the microphone away and approached
the assembled politicians, saying that he will
miss them, according to the Sme daily.
That same day, Gašparovič visited parliament to comment on the state of the Slovak Republic and review his 10 years as president.
“It was an honour to be the head of state in a
period which we consider, despite the financial
and economic crisis, the most successful in the
modern history of Slovakia,” Gašparovič said.
While Smer politicians praised the speech,
opposition MPs described it as uninteresting.
June 16 – 29, 2014
5
Gašparovič's adieu
IVAN Gašparovič is leaving
the presidential seat that he
occupied for a decade
without any fond memories
of the media, and he made
sure everyone was made
aware of this during his exit
speech to parliament.
“Most of the media are no
longer an objective mediator
of information and opinion,
but far too often also its
politicised
manipulator,”
said
the
73-year-old
Gašparovič just days before
he was to become a former
president. Citizens often
aren’t informed but rather
are influenced and misled
and that development is
heading towards a kind of
‘mediacracy’, he said.
Gašparovič, who will be
remembered more for occasional foul language and
slips of the tongue than for
any significant contribution
to the public discourse, indeed has been a frequent
target of media criticism. If
he happens to read the coverage of his departure from
the presidential seat, that
will likely only deepen
Gašparovič’s
convictions
that journalists use their
acid-pens when reporting on
Slovakia’s third-ever president.
The media, rightly so,
has a habit of reminding
Gašparovič of his political
roots. He was the right-hand
man of controversial threetime
prime
minister
Vladimír Mečiar and a frequent defender of Mečiar’s
often indefensible policies.
He split from Mečiar only
after the boss scratched him
from an electable position on
the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia’s (HZDS) candidate list for the parliamentary elections in 2002.
Gašparovič’s departure
from the HZDS was not so
much guided by a genuine
disagreement with Mečiar’s
policies, but rather that of a
damaged ego and thirst for
public office – neither of
which is a good reason for
staying in politics.
The public did choose
Gašparovič over Mečiar when
the two faced-off in the
second round of the presidential elections in 2004, imbuing him with trust that he
did not deserve given his
previous political perform-
EDITORIAL
BY BEATA BALOGOVÁ
Spectator staff
ance. In fact, the most positive aspect of his presidency
occurred right at the beginning: he prevented Mečiar
from regaining a significant
public post after 1998.
The way Gašparovič
treated the case of Jozef
Čentéš, who was lawfully
elected by parliament to the
post of general prosecutor
but left un-appointed by the
president without any substantial explanation, clearly
showed the kind of political
culture that Gašparovič nurtured: laws, rules and integrity mattered little when personal political gain was at
play.
Gašparovič has never
been an adept orator and the
media often had a laugh at
his slips of the tongue. This
was particularly the case during his second term when he
became a rather popular ob-
ject of jokes on social media
sites. But these would have
seemed like minor issues had
Gašparovič been able to live
up to his promises of being
an independent president
and serving first of all the
people of Slovakia.
“We are alone here, so I
can say that I am practically
a member, and my failure
would be the failure of Smer,”
Gašparovič commented on
his prospects in the 2009
presidential elections during
a Smer party meeting in
Košice, according to a video
recording published by the
SITA newswire.
When The Slovak Spectator invited two notable
political scientists to list
some positive contributions
Gašparovič has made to the
presidential office, they
struggled to come up with
any.
Over the past decade the
expectations from the public
for the country’s president
have sunk considerably low.
So low that many merely
hope that the head of state
can call countries and organisations by their actual name
and avoid diplomatic scandal. This is a rather sad
commentary on a man who
had been in politics for more
than two decades.
With that said the expectations laid on the
shoulders of Slovakia’s next
president, Andrej Kiska, are
high. Should he fail to meet
these expectations the damage to the public trust will
be considerably more serious.
Slovakia can no longer
afford to waste years on the
personal ambitions of individuals who treat the presidency only as a tool for
staying close to power or
conserving a poisonous
political culture that has
lingered for more than two
decades now.
Here’s hoping that the
presidency can again become an office that prioritises the public interest over
personal or party interests.
JÁN PALLO - Publisher
EDITORIAL
BEATA BALOGOVÁ - Editor - In - Chief
BENJAMIN CUNNINGHAM - Senior Editor
JEFF WHITEAKER - Assistant Editor
KATIE PERKOWSKI - Copy Editor
JANA LIPTÁKOVÁ - Staff Writer
MICHAELA TERENZANI - Staff Writer
ZUZANA VILIKOVSKÁ - Staff Writer
RADKA MINARECHOVÁ - Staff Writer & Project Manager
LAYOUT, WEB & IT
TATIANA ŠTRAUCHOVÁ - Graphic Designer
ROMAN KRÁĽ - IT
TOMÁŠ PALLO - Online Publishing
SALES - FINANCES
Summer publication schedule for The Slovak Spectator
Dear Readers,
As of this issue and during July and August, The Slovak Spectator will publish on a biweekly basis. Detailed news updates and stories will continue to be published daily
throughout the summer on our website, www.spectator.sk. Regular weekly publication of
The Slovak Spectator will resume with the September 8 issue. The Slovak Spectator team
BEATA FOJTÍKOVÁ - Sales Executive
JOZEF HÁMORSKÝ - Sales Executive
JÁN PESTÚN - Circulation & PR Manager
The Slovak Spectator is an independent newspaper published every Monday by The Rock, s.r.o. Subscriptions: Inquiries should be made to The Slovak Spectator’s
business office at (+421-2) 59 233 300. Printing: Petit Press a.s. Distribution: Interpress Slovakia s.r.o., Mediaprint-kapa s.r.o., Slovenská po‰ta a.s.
Mail Distribution: ABOPRESS. EV 544/08. © 2010 The Rock, s.r.o. All rights reserved. Any reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited by
law. The authors of articles published in this issue, represented by the publisher, reserve the right to give their approval for reproducing and public transmission
of articles marked ©The Slovak Spectator, as well as for the public circulation of reproductions of these articles, in compliance with the 33rd article and
1st paragraph of the Copyright Law. Media monitoring is provided by Newton, IT, SMA and Slovakia Online with the approval of the publisher. Advertising
material contained herein is the responsibility of the advertiser and is not a written or implied sponsorship, endorsement or investigation of such commercial
enterprises or ventures by The Slovak Spectator or The Rock s.r.o. ISSN 1335-9843. Address: The Rock, s.r.o., Lazaretská 12, 811 08 Bratislava. IâO: 313 86 237.
6
June 16 – 29, 2014
FINLAND
NORWAY, DENMARK
Valuing the teacher
BY BEATA BALOGOVÁ
Spectator staff
TEACHERS are highly valued in
Finland, with only 10 percent of
the applicants accepted into
teacher
education
programmes, explains Henna
Knuuttila, who leads Finland’s
diplomatic micro-mission in
Bratislava, when asked about
the top performance of her
homeland in international
education rankings. She also
suggests that Finland’s challenging geographical location
has made Finns natural problem solvers. The Slovak Spectator spoke to Knuuttila about
education reform, innovation,
Finland’s economic challenges
as well as the potential of the
tourism industry.
The Slovak Spectator (TSS):
Finland’s education system
has been making it to the top
of international rankings.
How has Finland achieved
such an exceptional standing
in education?
Henna Knuuttila (HK):
This is a very good question and
it’s difficult to name one reason
only. First of all, education is
highly appreciated in Finland
at all levels of society, being
viewed as a basic value. Accordingly, the teacher’s profession
is appreciated and only 10 percent of the applicants are accepted into universities to
study in teacher education programmes, making it a very
good starting point. Teachers’
salaries are reasonable, comparable to the salaries of other
university-educated
people.
Early education plays an important role as well, while also
Chargé d'Affaires Henna Knuuttila
preschool teachers are university educated.
Maybe it’s worth mentioning that in Finland preschool
starts at the age of six and first
grade at the age of seven: we believe that childhood should be
as long as possible. The teaching methods applied at schools
are another point, as these are
actively being developed. I recently attended an event here
in Slovakia where Finnish
teachers described how they
use live role-plays, so-called
larps, in teaching, while modern technology like smartphones and tablets are often
used as well. In Finland, the
pedagogical freedom of the
teachers is extensive, while
only the framework of the curriculum is given.
TSS: Are education reforms
frequent in Finland?
HK: Smaller reforms are
taking place constantly, but we
introduced a large-scale reform
already in the 1960s and 1970s,
Photo: Jana Liptáková
and the whole process took 20
years. Experts have noted that
over 10 governments were
committed to these reforms,
with the goal being made very
clear.
We are a small society, like
yours with 5.5 million people,
and we do not have much energy sources or raw materials,
thus the main thing we can invest in is people’s education
from the pre-school level until
life-long learning.
TSS: One of the most frequently mentioned features
of the Finnish school system
is that children are not
burdened by standardised
tests. What are other main
specifics of the Finnish education system?
HK: There is only one general test at the end of secondary
school, at the age of 18, the socalled matriculation exam.
Otherwise there are no general
tests for everybody. Of course,
during their studies, students
do smaller tests, but not general tests. Schools are not ranked,
even though some newspapers
rank them according to the
results of the matriculation exams. Schools and universities
are public, while there are no
student fees, while at elementary schools and gymnasiums
the lunches are free. We do not
have school inspections either,
which many Slovaks find a bit
surprising. We used to have
this system, but it was abolished long ago. Parents are very
much involved in the education of their children: not only
actively communicating with
the teachers and other education professionals, but also taking part in the public discussions about education policy.
TSS: The European Commission names Finland as an innovation leader within the
EU along with Denmark,
Germany and Sweden. What
factors have helped Finland
to become such an innovator?
HK: Our challenging location in the northern part of the
world has made Finns natural
problem-solvers, while “Consider it Solved!” is one of our official mottos, and under tougher natural conditions you have
to be innovative in order to
survive, in order to develop the
society. We are also quite technology-oriented and get excited when, for example, there
is a new invention, or a new
device or programme is introduced. On 5 June there was the
Slovak-Nordic Forum on science parks and support for
start-up companies held in
Bratislava, featuring three experts from Finland.
See HK pg 8
Finding the niche
BY JANA LIPTÁKOVÁ
Spectator staff
ALMOST seven times bigger than Slovakia
in terms geographical area, but almost
equal in size in population, Finland remains rather undiscovered by Slovakia,
even though there already are shining examples of successful cooperation between
the two countries. But innovative Finland
offers even more.
“Finland is a country of innovative
products and innovations,” Matej Kapusta
from the Banská Bystrica Regional Chamber of the Slovak Chamber of Commerce
and Industry told The Slovak Spectator. “It
is a country of huge opportunities, but only
a few Slovak firms have realised this so far.”
According to Kapusta, while Finns
have a different mentality and more time is
needed to get acquainted with them and
find room for closer cooperation, Finns are
interested in cooperating with Slovak
companies in manufacturing their
products in Slovakia and in helping to get
established in the Slovak market.
Chargé d’Affaires at the Embassy of
Finland Henna Knuuttila specified that
there are around 30 Finnish companies in
Slovakia, many of which are involved in
production activities here. Among the
biggest are Metsä Tissue, YIT, Peikko,
KONE and Ramirent, which are active in
construction, and production of soft paper,
steel, elevators and more. A Slovak-Finnish
joint venture, Tervakoski Films/Terichem
in Svit has just launched a production line
to produce the thinnest capacitor film in
the world. Knuuttila put the volume of
Finnish investments in Slovakia at around
€127 million at the end of 2013.
According to Richard Dírer from the
Slovak Investment and Trade Development Agency (SARIO), the volume of
Finnish direct investments to Slovakia has
been increasing significantly over the last
few years thanks to the arrival of new
Finnish companies in Slovakia, as well as
the extension of existing ones. The latter
includes Peiko Group, with investments
worth over €10 million, and Lindström,
with investments worth €5 million, just to
name a few, Kapusta specified.
SARIO has so far supported the arrival
of seven Finnish companies to Slovakia.
The total investments amounted to €22.6
million and 545 jobs were created, while
these investments went especially into the
sector of suppliers for the automotive industry and shared services centres.
The biggest Finnish investment registered by SARIO was the launch of the
shared services centre by KONE in Slovakia. In terms of the current interest of
Finnish investors in Slovakia, Knuuttila
sees construction as the fastest growing
sector, but she sees room for further cooperation in clean-tech and other fields.
See FINLAND pg 8
Finland: General facts
Form of government: Parliamentary democracy
Capital: Helsinki
Total area: 338,424 square kilometres
Population: 5.4 million
Official languages: Finnish (spoken by 91 percent of
population), Swedish (5.4 percent). Sámi is the mother
tongue of about 1,700 people who are descendants of the
indigenous Sámi people of northern Lapland
Currency: euro
Source: www.finland.fi
Finnish institutions in Slovakia
Embassy of Finland
www.finlandembassy.sk
Chargé d'Affaires: Henna Knuuttila
Team Finland in Slovakia
www.team.finland.fi
The Team Finland network promotes Finland’s external
economic relations and country brand, the
internationalisation of Finnish companies as well as
foreign investment directed at Finland. Its aim is to
intensify cooperation between Finnish players in these
sectors. Team Finland partners in Slovakia are the
Embassy of Finland, the Finpro office in Prague and the
Cleantech Finland office in Bratislava. Team Finland
Slovakia focuses on making the country’s business
opportunities more widely known among Finnish
companies. Specific opportunities are offered in the
infrastructure investments required by EU, including
clean-tech sectors, such as water treatment, renewable
energy and district heating modernisation.
Compiled by Spectator staff
Folklore, glass and a
soft spot for tango
BY ZUZANA VILIKOVSKÁ
Spectator staff
WHEN comparing two countries as different as Finland
and Slovakia, people would
have to look for parallels
between culture, art, and
more generally, the lifestyle.
However, on closer inspection, these two countries do
have more in common, in
sometimes unexpected ways.
“Why is tango so popular?
Hard to say,” Henna Knuuttila, Chargé d’Affaires of the
Finnish Embassy to Slovakia,
told The Slovak Spectator
when explaining the peculiar
phenomenon of Finnish
tango, which recently won
over Slovak audiences with
performances in Bratislava.
“Some people say it is because
in general Finns are not such
‘emotional’ people and they
need ways to express their
emotions. Some say that it is
because of the melancholic
character of tango. I learned
recently that Slovakia also has
its own, older tango culture. So
it is not only ice hockey, but
also tango that unites our
countries!”
Describing in more detail
the concert that the embassy
co-organised with Slovak Radio and Television, Knuuttila
said it was a big success and
the 500-people capacity concert hall was full. The show
combined tangos from Finnish
composers Toivo Kärki and
Unto Mononen, but also those
from Astor Piazzola and Igor
Bázlik, she said, adding that
she hopes that this cooperation can continue in one form
or another.
In Finland tango already
has a 100-year-old tradition,
and is especially popular
among middle-aged and older
generations. The biggest
yearly tango festival is organised in Seinäjoki in July. Last
year the festival had over
100,000 participants, which
demonstrates the importance
of tango on the Finnish musical landscape, Knuuttila
said.
In 2012 Slovaks saw a rich
presentation of Finnish culture, from folklore through
glass design to Finnish architecture, with something on offer for practically everyone.
The 20 Years of Finnish Architecture & Icons of Scandinavian Design exhibition at the
Centre of Contemporary Architecture and Design,
ARCHA, in Bratislava, offered
an overview of exceptional examples of Finnish architecture
from the years 1988-2008.
See EVENTS pg 8
www.spectator.sk
SWEDEN
Designing a diverse
society
BY BEATA BALOGOVÁ
Spectator staff
GENDER equality is a win-win
situation, with much of the
male population feeling better
with more time with the family, suggests Nils Daag, who
represents Sweden, one of the
most gender equal societies in
the world. He stresses that
“this is the future from every
perspective”. The Slovak Spectator discussed with the
Swedish ambassador to Slovakia the issue of military cooperation between the two
countries, economic links,
Swedish design, the challenge
presented by far right-wing
parties across Europe and the
role of the European Union in
this context.
The Slovak Spectator (TSS):
Sweden has been ranked as
one of the most gender egalitarian societies in the world.
How has Swedish society
achieved such a standing?
(For example reports on your
country suggest that gender
equality guides all levels of
the education system. How
does this work in practice?)
Nils Daag (ND): Gender
equality has a long history in
Sweden. There is a consensus
among all political entities
that equality is not only immensely important from a
human but also from an economic perspective. Equal opportunities are imperative for a
Swedish Ambassador Nils Daag
well-functioning and sustainable labour market and for a society in balance. This is a winwin situation. Much of the
male population is feeling better getting more time with
their family. This is the future
from every perspective.
TSS: The Swedish Embassy
has been active in promoting
the idea of gender equality in
the region, most recently
through an exhibition called
Photo: Johan Oedmann
Life Puzzle, followed by a
panel discussion in Bratislava. Could you tell us more
about the gender equality
initiative, especially regarding Slovakia’s involvement?
ND: Life Puzzle is a documentary photo exhibition produced by the Swedish Institute
in order to present modern
family life in Sweden and to inform about how Swedish society copes with gender equality
in families as well as in the la-
bour market. An important aspect during the production of
the exhibition was to both picture the average family, but at
the same time show the ethnic
diversity of Sweden and the social tolerance for alternative
family constellations, which is
an important part of Swedish
family policy. The Swedes use
the expression “life puzzle” as
a synonym for the challenges
of combining parenthood, career, domestic life and finances by keeping a high level of
equality between men and
women.
Gender equality is a topic
of great importance in Swedish
politics. Our aim is to increase
the awareness of this issue also
in other parts of the world.
Therefore, the embassy put the
exhibition Life Puzzle on display at the Avion Shopping
Park in Bratislava and arranged a panel discussion with
Oľga Pietruchová, director of
the Department of Gender
Equality and Equal Opportunities of the Slovak Ministry of
Labour, Social Affairs and Family, and with Zora Bútorová, a
senior research fellow of the
Institute for Public Affairs. The
embassy is planning to conduct a similar project also in
Austria and Slovenia. We are
convinced that discussing the
topic of gender equality, sharing the knowledge and experiences, both good and bad, can
contribute to the transformation of societies into more
equal ones.
See ND pg 9
Room for growth
BY JANA LIPTÁKOVÁ
Spectator staff
WHILE IKEA is probably the first Swedish
company to spring to the minds of most
Slovaks when discussing this Nordic
country and its presence in Slovakia, the
popular furniture producer and retailer is
actually a Dutch investment, as its official seat is in the Netherlands. Nevertheless, IKEA, which has made Sweden’s
iconic designs and tasty meatballs popular in Slovakia, is just one of nearly 80
companies with links to Sweden operating in Slovakia.
“Slovak-Swedish economic relations
are very good,” Helen Alterius, the head of
Business Sweden in Prague, told The
Slovak Spectator. “But there is room for
even more cooperation. Developing cooperation between businesses and uni-
versities, broadening technical cooperation and creating science parks, working
with ideas on start-ups and internet
based trade, etc. Here we see great
potential.”
Many of the biggest Swedish companies are already represented in Slovakia, as
well as a number of small and mediumsized businesses. Among the more successful Swedish investments in Slovakia
involving production, Alterius sited
Swedwood and SCA Hygiene. Other major
Swedish companies active in Slovakia are
Skanska, IKEA, ABB, Swep Slovakia,
Swedspan and Tetra Pak.
Based on the database of Dun & Bradstreet, 77 companies with Swedish links
are now operating in Slovakia, employing
around 3,500 people, Richard Dírer from
the Slovak Investment and Trade Development Agency (SARIO) told The Slovak
Spectator.
Based on the statistics of the National
Bank of Slovakia (NBS), aggregate direct
foreign investments from Sweden
amounted to €351 million in 2012, while
this number has been increasing in recent years. But Dírer warned that these
statistics are not entirely accurate, as
some Swedish investments come from
the Netherlands, as that is where the investors are formally based, much like
IKEA.
Alterius highlighted that Sweden is
among the top 20 foreign investors in
Slovakia, while she estimates aggregate
Swedish investments in Slovakia at almost €270 million.
“The key areas of activities are furniture, pulp and paper, industrial machinery and equipment, and retail,” said
Alterius when specifying the current interest of Swedish investors in Slovakia.
“In the Czech Republic, for example,
Swedish investments focus on construction, wholesale and manufacturing.”
See SWEDEN pg 9
June 16 – 29, 2014
7
Sweden: General facts
Political system: constitutional monarchy
Capital: Stockholm
Total area: 528,447 square kilometres
Population: 9.1 million
Official language: Swedish
Currency: Swedish krona (SEK)
Source: www.visitsweden.com, www.svedsko.org
Swedish institutions and
organisations
Embassy of Sweden
www.swedenabroad.com/en-GB/Embassies/Vienna
Ambassador: Nils Daag
-The Swedish Embassy in Vienna represents the Swedish
government in Austria, Slovakia and Slovenia and is at
the same time the permanent representation of Sweden
at the United Nations’ offices in Vienna.
Swedish Chamber of Commerce in the Slovak
Republic, www.sweden.sk
-It was officially opened in 1997. Today it has 35 members
and the chamber works continuously to improve and
support initiatives and contacts that will lead to
increased trade between Sweden and Slovakia.
Compiled by Spectator staff
More than heavy metal
and crime novels
BY ZUZANA
VILIKOVSKÁ
Spectator staff
SWEDEN holds a special appeal for Slovaks, some of
whom still have ties to the
country, as many Slovaks
emigrated to Sweden in the
past, especially during
communism.
Swedish culture is
known the world over, and it
resonates in Slovakia too,
especially the country’s rock
and heavy metal musical exports, as well as its films,
and last but not least, its
forward-thinking design and
fashion. Translations of
best-selling criminal novels
by Swedish authors have
also enjoyed considerable
popularity here.
Approached by The Slovak Spectator, the Embassy of
Sweden in Vienna, which
also oversees Slovakia,
summed up its cultural
events here: “There are different areas of Swedish culture that have found their
way to Slovakia,” they
wrote. “One of the most successful areas of Swedish culture abroad is, of course,
music. Some researchers say
that after the US and Great
Britain, Sweden is the third
biggest music exporter in
the world. Even though this
assertion is difficult to
prove, one thing is for sure –
Swedish music is wellknown worldwide.”
Having said this, the embassy specified that last year
it supported a few Swedish
hard rock concerts at the
Majestic Music Club in Bratislava, a venue that occasionally hosts Swedish rock and
metal bands with fans in
Slovakia.
The Swedish Embassy
also actively supports organ
music. The international organ festival “Ars Organi
Nitra”, which takes place in
the western-Slovak city of
the same name, was opened
last year by Swedish organist
Jörgen Lindström and this
year, dedicated Slovak organ
music fans enjoyed the opening concert performed by
Professor Hans Fagius, a
member of the Royal Swedish
Academy of Music.
The embassy also supported Swedish composer Henrik Strindberg’s participation
in the World New Music
Days, a contemporary classical music festival, which
last year was held in Košice
as part of the European Capital of Culture (ECOC) project.
The Swedish city of Umea
took over the ECOC title from
Košice in 2014 (together with
Riga). In connection with the
ECOC project, “the embassy
supported a Swedish edition
of the Slovak magazine
ENTER, which presents contemporary Slovak art, especially literature. The
magazine is published by
creative publishing house
Divé Buky in Košice“.
See LIT pg 9
8
BUSINESS FOCUS
June 16 – 29, 2014
HK: Austerity prompted tough cuts
Continued from pg 6
They suggested that not
only high-quality education,
know-how and adequate financial support for innovations and
start-ups are behind Finland’s
success, but also an encouraging atmosphere and curiosity
among people, combined with
openness and risk-taking.
People are encouraged to establish a company or a start-up.
There are examples of highvolume incubators for startups, for example, the Slush
event or the Start-up sauna.
Slush is a focal point for Eurasian start-ups and technology talent to meet with international
investors and media, while in
2013 Slush gathered 7,000 attendees and 1,200 companies
from 68 countries. Start-up
Sauna helps promising earlystage start-ups to get ready for
taking the next step: 109 companies have graduated from
this programme since 2010.
TSS: Earlier this year Finland
slipped into another recession, the third, in six years, in
a time when the government
has been trying to tame public finances with a number of
austerity measures. What are
the main challenges that
Finland’s economy currently
faces?
HK: True, our current economic situation is not the
brightest: the estimated GDP
growth for this year is only at
0.2 percent. In addition to the
economic downturn of the euro
area, our economy has gone
through major structural
changes in the last years: the
wood and paper industry and
the ICT sector that used to be
backbones of the Finnish industry don’t form such a big
share of the economy anymore.
Unfortunately there have been
a lot of layoffs in these sectors.
Many people prefer tablets over
print newspapers and thus less
paper is needed. On the other
hand, people shop more over
the internet and the goods
come back packed in cartons,
thus, this specific part of the
sector is doing fine.
At the same time we face
the aging of the population and
growing expenses for pensions
and health care. The current
government has made some
hard decisions to tackle the
situation, while these include,
for example, reducing the
community tax in order to give
incentives to the economy to
encourage hiring new people,
cuts in public expenditure and
cuts in social benefits. The state
will also cut support for day
care: every child is entitled to
day care and the state support
for this entitlement depends on
the financial situation of the
parents. But cuts pertain to all
fields, including the foreign
service. We now have at our
embassy what we call a micromission: only me and two
people. I would say we have a
tiny but very effective team, so
it is manageable.
Nevertheless, there are
also success stories with
Finnish industry, especially in
the field of game industries
and clean-tech. For example,
the game industry is growing
fast: 125 new companies were
established in the last three
years and the sector grows
over 40 percent per year. Finland is one of the global leaders
in the field of clean technologies and we hope that after
ICT, this sector will lead the
way to new economic growth.
Finland has become a hotbed
for environmental technology
partly because of our harsh
climate and lack of fossil fuel
resources.
TSS: Has the potential for
Finnish-Slovak cooperation
been fully tapped? Where do
you see room for further ties?
What are some examples of
successful
Slovak-Finnish
business cooperation, if you
could name a few?
HK: Team Finland Slovakia
[a group in charge of building
business links between the
countries] has two priorities:
education and clean-tech,
while in both fields there is potential for further cooperation.
In the field of education our
minister of education and culture, Ms Krista Kiuru, visited
Slovakia in late January and her
Slovak counterpart went to Finland last year. The exchange of
experts has been vivid before
and after these visits. One such
example is an international
conference, “Innovations in
Adult Education”, organised by
the Slovak Life-Long learning
Centre held in Bratislava on
June 3. Finnish keynote speakers of the conference were Petri
Haltia from the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture
and Markku Kokkonen from the
Finnish National Board of Education, while the Slovak Ministry of Education has committed to developing legislation
pertaining to life-long learning
and increasing the participation of Slovaks in adult education. As far as clean-tech is concerned, I would mention the
district heating conference held
in Bratislava in February. We
have here, in Slovakia, approximately 30 Finnish companies.
TSS: Where do you see the
greatest potential for the
tourism industry in terms of
attracting Finnish tourists to
Slovakia? Do you think
Finnish people know enough
about Slovakia, and vice
versa?
HK: I think that many
people in Finland do not know
enough about the beautiful
hiking places, skiing facilities
and spas that you have here.
Many people know Hungary
for its spas, and I wonder why
they do not know those in
Slovakia? I discovered thermal
healing waters only after I
came here. That’s why many
Finns travel to this part of the
world: to visit these spas. Approximately 9,000 Finns visit
Slovakia every year. It is quite a
small number given the fact
that you can fly to Vienna’s airport and travel half an hour
from there.
Slovak tourists were visible
in Finland during the ice
hockey championships last
year. Unfortunately, the prices
in Finland are relatively higher
than in Slovakia, which still
might be a factor which prevents more Slovaks from visiting the country.
TSS: If you are able to recall,
what came as the biggest surprise after your arrival in
Slovakia - something you had
not expected?
HK: The biggest surprise
was of course how quickly we
adapted to the life here in Slovakia after three years in Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia. We liked it
there as well, but here maybe because of the climate, the people
and the nature, my family felt
almost immediately at home at
here. Also, the Slovak mentality
is a little bit similar to the
Finnish one: people are workoriented, maybe somewhat serious. I lived in this region back in
1998 when I was an exchange
student in Budapest, Hungary.
Then I visited Slovakia a few
times.
To read the full interview,
please go to www.spectator.sk
FINLAND: Demand for foreign workers
Continued from pg 6
Dírer added that energy, R&D and
shared services centres represent other
fields of the Slovak economy that are of interest to Finnish investors.
Kapusta also sees potential for Finnish
investments in education of Slovak labour. He added that due to the aging of the
post-war population wave, Finland will
lack a labour force, and since the country’s
young generation is unable to fill this gap,
this increases demand for labour from
abroad, for example, in the fields of health
care and construction.
Juraj Haško from the regional chamber specified that Slovak companies are
active in Finland too, noting the first
Slovak investment in Finland, a €15 million project of the company E-Group to
build a wind power station in Finland.
Apart from this, several Slovak companies
are already active in Finland, mostly in
construction, for example, Skanska BS
Prievidza, and others have launched limited companies here, like Finnstav Oy
Vantaa and DSD Group Oy Vantaa. Finnish
firm Opteam has up to 50 Slovaks working
on construction of the nuclear power station in Olkiluoto. When the project began
it employed as many as 350 Slovaks.
SARIO and other business organisations are aware of the potential Finland
Finnish investors have shown interest in Slovakia's construction sector.
offers to Slovak entrepreneurs and are actively presenting existing cooperation opportunities. One of them was a trade mission that SARIO organised with the
Banská Bystrica Regional Chamber of the
Slovak Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Banská Bystrica city council
and the Slovak Embassy in Helsinki last
November to intensify Slovak-Finnish cooperation in investments, trade, education, sports and municipal management.
In Jyväskylä, which is a partnership city
of Banská Bystrica, Slovak representatives, including Banská Bystrica Mayor
Peter Gogola and Vice Rector of the Matej
Bel University in Banská Bystrica Štefan
Photo: Sme
Porubský, presented opportunities for cooperation, while Rani Plast shared its experience with Finnish investors when doing business in Slovakia. The seminar was
followed by B2B negotiations.
Haško specified that Jyväskylä is a
city of young people thanks to the universities there. The University of
Jyväskylä is the only academic institution
in the Nordic countries where a Slovak
programme of language and culture is
offered.
To read the whole article and more about
Slovak-Finnish cooperation,
please go to www.spectator.sk.
Finnish tango goes
symphonic – and Slovak
NEVER heard of Finnish
tango? You’re not alone, as
you are probably among the
majority of people who
would never associate the
passionate and energetic Argentinean dance with the
music of Finland.
However, the concert of
the Symphonic Orchestra of
the Slovak Radio (SOSR) on
May 28, with tenor Harri
Kaitila and Mikko Helenius
on bandoneon from Finland
as soloists, managed to fill
the big studio of the Slovak
Radio in Bratislava. This success might be attributed to
the fact that Kaitila already
performed in Bratislava
eighteen months earlier
with a small Finnish band,
Tango Sonorte. Slovak tango
connoisseurs were also well
represented in the audience.
Other soloists apart from
Kaitila and Helenius included Miriam Rodriguez
Brüllová on guitar and
Marián Svetlík on violin. The
SOSR was conducted by
Mario Košik and the whole
concert was broadcast live on
Slovak Radio.
The sound of a Finnish
tenor, originally trained as
an operatic tenor, singing
with a whole symphonic orchestra was much different
from the sound of his fronting a small tango band.
“I normally sing with
smaller orchestras, but I
hope that this concert with
the SOSR in Bratislava brings
us more concerts with big
orchestras in the future,
too,” Kaitila told The Slovak
Spectator.
As for how he sees the
difference between Argentinean and Finnish tango,
Kaitila explained that Argentinean tangos have more
dramatic elements in the lyrics and in their rhythm as
well.
To read the whole story,
please go to www.spectator.sk.
EVENTS: Supporting
slew of music genres
Continued from pg 6
It included videos of 10
Finnish architects and the 3D
installation Icons of Scandinavian Design, showing a selection of the most wellknown designs.
In July 2012, items from
the Finnish Glass Museum in
the town of Riihimäki were
exhibited, offering about 200
glass objects by 62 designers
and artists.
In August that same year,
the Finnish folklore ensemble
Kärri, composed of 21 dancers
and musicians, visited Slovakia for the first time in 50
years. Kärri travels around the
world to present Finnish folklore – mainly from the region
of Karelia, but also from other
parts of the country. It visited
the Slovak capital before travelling on to Doľany, Banská
Štiavnica and Banská
Bystrica. In 2013, Värttinä, a
contemporary folk ensemble,
also gave a concert here, according to Knuuttila.
Finnish contemporary
classical music also resonates
with Slovak audiences, and
the Melos-Étos international
festival hosted Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho in
November 2013.
“Finland has been able to
provide quality musicians who
have become known worldwide, and we have had the
chance to welcome some of
them in Slovakia – in addition
to composer Kaija Saariaho, for
example, pianist Henri Sigfridsson performed here in
Bratislava recently,” Knuuttila
said, adding that the genre is
popular in Finland, mainly
the Savonlinna Opera festival,
which attracts a big number
of international tourists every
year.
The embassy regularly
promotes Finnish classical
music within the limits of its
resources, according to
Knuuttila. Several Finnish opera singers have also studied
here in Slovakia with famous
professor Eva Blahová, she
added.
A concert by famous rock
band Rasmus in November
and Finnish participation
with a community theatre
troupe at the Error Theatre
festival of the homeless
wrapped up the year 2013.
Apart from the already
regular NordFest film festival,
Finnish films are also
screened at the international
Art Film Fest in Trenčianske
Teplice, the One World festival of engaged documentaries,
International Film Festival
Bratislava and elsewhere occasionally throughout the
year.
“It’s true that Finnish
films are hardly ever screened
in commercial cinemas,”
Knuuttila said of her
homeland’s cinematography
adding that there have been a
few exceptions to this recently, mainly with regards to
co-produced films.
In November 2013, the
embassy cooperated with organisers of the Clownwise
premiere, with Kati Outinen, a
well-known Finnish actress,
in one of the main roles. Also,
Timo Vuorensola’s Iron Sky
was screened in Bratislava in
2012 and seemed to be very
popular among the Slovak
public, according to Knuuttila.
Next year Finland will celebrate the 150th anniversary
of Jean Sibelius, its most famous classical music composer,
and whose music will for sure
have a presence in Slovakia,
Knuuttila concluded.
BUSINESS FOCUS
www.spectator.sk
SWEDEN: Slovakia is in surplus
supporting start-ups earlier
this year.
Alterius added that the
Swedish Chamber of Commerce is also active in Slovakia.
Continued from pg 7
When discussing the advantages that Slovakia offers
to Swedish investors, Alterius
said that “Slovakia is fortunate to be located very close
to Europe’s industrial backbone, has a skilled and welleducated workforce and has a
growing
infrastructure
network.”
“On the negative side, we
hear about slow legal proceedings and sluggish administration (form-filling, stamping, ID numbers, all kinds of
permits, etc.), that still are a
thorn in the side of both
businesses
and
private
persons,” said Alterius.
As for Slovakia’s economic
sectors that offer the best
prospects for Swedish investors, she listed ICT, automotive, electronics, energy
and environment, infrastructure, machinery and precision engineering, metallurgy
and metal processing, construction, chemical and life
sciences, wood, pulp and paper, and furniture, adding
that Slovakia offers a broad
spectrum of business opportunities in these sectors.
With regard to finding
new investments, extending
existing investments, or the
departure of Swedish investors from Slovakia, Alterius specified that Business
Sweden deals with ongoing
projects – two at the moment
– that could lead to more investments in Slovakia, while
Trade
Stockholm
there is no information about
any recent company closures.
Over the last three years
SARIO supported the arrival
of three companies from
Sweden to Slovakia in the
field of suppliers of automotive and wood processing industries and metal processing. Aggregate investments amounted to €146.5
million, while 632 jobs were
created. In total, SARIO registers 10 successful projects
from Sweden in a total
volume of €256.8 million and
the creation of almost 1,600
jobs. Currently, SARIO is
working on one project from
Sweden with an investor
from furniture production.
“The interest of direct foreign
investments
[from
Photo: Jana Liptáková
Sweden] concentrates on the
machine industry and the
electro-technical industry,”
said Dírer, expecting that
Swedish interest will continue to focus on these two segments, as well as environmental technologies, life sciences, bio technologies, ecological food and design.
SARIO cooperates with
the Vienna-based Swedish
Embassy to Slovakia when
drawing Swedish investors to
Slovakia, while it maintains
regular contact with the
Swedish honorary consul in
Slovakia. Within other activities, Dírer mentioned the
participation of SARIO project
managers at the Nordic-Slovak Research and Innovation
Forum, which focused on
Slovakia has a long-term
trade surplus with Sweden.
Sweden accounts for about 0.5
percent of Slovakia’s imports
and 1.3 percent of its exports,
said Alterius, adding that bilateral economic cooperation
has developed well.
Based on data of the Slovak Statistics Office, Slovakia
imported from Sweden goods
and services worth €279.7
million in 2013, while
Slovakia’s exports to Sweden
amounted to €907.9 million
in 2013. Slovakia retained a
trade surplus of €628.2 million.
“The trade volume has
been growing thanks to an
increasing
number
of
Swedish companies established in Slovakia,” said Alterius. She sees the growing
purchasing power, favourable
geographic location, investment incentives, political
stability and a growing infrastructure network as factors
influencing the positive attitude of Swedish companies
towards investments and exports in Slovakia.
To read more about SwedishSlovak economic cooperation,
please go to www. spectator.sk.
June 16 – 29, 2014
9
LIT: Swedish design,
film popular abroad
Continued from pg 7
“The editor-in-chief, with
a group of Slovak translators …
presented the magazine at the
biggest literature festival in
Umea - Littfest. With that, the
interested Swedish public got
a glimpse of contemporary
Slovak art,” the embassy
wrote.
The embassy also supports
the activities of the Swedish
Chamber of Commerce in Slovakia, which keeps Swedish
traditions alive here, like the
celebration of the summer solstice in June and the day of
Saint Lucia in December. This
is a bonus not just for the
Swedish community in Slovakia, as even Slovak people
linked to Sweden either
through work or family love to
attend these festivities.
“Sweden also has a very
strong tradition in design and
fashion, and many famous designers in furniture and textiles as well as industry
design, graphics and crafts,
are Swedish,” the embassy
wrote to The Slovak Spectator.
“The Swedish (and Scandinavian) style – often referred
to as minimalist – means
clean, simple lines and a
strong emphasis on functionality. Not least, Swedish furniture design has been extremely successful. Pioneers
in the Swedish design field included industrial designers
who began adopting an en-
gineering-driven design approach. Besides the Scandinavian design aspect, a distinguishing feature of
Swedish design over the years
has been a socially-oriented
style reflecting people’s situation in life.”
One should not forget another popular genre of
Swedish culture - cinematography. The NordFest film
festival has become a staple of
the cultural schedule in Bratislava, and offers annually an
overview of what has been
filmed in the northern countries, spread over a whole
month, and is accompanied
by various side events, like
travellers’ lectures and other
presentations.
The Embassy of Sweden
also supports Swedish films in
Slovakia’s biggest film festival, Art Film Fest in
Trenčianske Teplice. In 2014,
this June festival will present
the film We Are the Best! by
Swedish director Lukas
Moodysson, and the short film
On Suffocation, directed by
Jennifer Malmqvist.
“The time of summer festivals is coming,” the embassy
noted when summing up its
future plans. “Later in June,
the Swedish power-metal
band Sabaton is announced to
participate in the Topfest festival in Piešťany; and in July,
the jazz trio Dirty Loops will
be playing at the Open Jazz
Fest in Zelená Voda.”
ND: Extremism 'one of the biggest challenges' facing EU
Continued from pg 7
TSS: Earlier this year the Slovak
government agreed to cooperate
with Sweden in the area of military
and defence, which should involve
military-technical cooperation, research and development. Can you
share more information on this possible agreement and what benefits
it would bring to both countries?
ND: The signing of the memorandum of understanding between
Slovakia and Sweden in September
last year was a step in further
strengthening our already excellent
cooperation within the area of defence. The memorandum identifies
certain areas, including training and
education, technical cooperation and
military medicine. We also discuss
how to best develop regional cooperation using experiences from the Nordic countries and the Visegrad Group
countries. The economic situation in
many countries demands that we
make a reality out of buzzwords such
as Pooling & Sharing and Smart Defence. Here both bilateral and regional
cooperation is a good starting point.
TSS: Has the potential for SwedishSlovak economic cooperation been
fully tapped? Where do you see
room for further business ties?
What are some examples of successful Slovak-Swedish business links,
if you could name a few?
ND: Slovak-Swedish economic relations are very good, but I think there
is room for more cooperation, for example, in the field of how businesses
and universities work together. Developing technical cooperation and
creating science parks, working with
ideas on start-ups and internet based
trade, etc. Here I see great potential
for the future. On the issue of existing
links, a lot of the biggest Swedish
companies are already represented in
Slovakia and also a number of small
and medium-sized businesses. We
must also mention the work done by
the Swedish Chamber of Commerce as
a focal point for the companies with
Swedish ties.
TSS: The Swedish architectural
team Mandaworks AB and Hosper
Sweden AB from Stockholm won
the international urban design
competition ‘Trenčín – City on the
River’, with their Tracing Trenčín
proposal. Swedish architecture and
design is popular in Slovakia. What
is, in your opinion, behind the appeal of Swedish architecture and
design around the world?
ND: ‘Trenčín – City on the River’
was announced by the city of Trenčín
as an open, anonymous international
urban design ideas competition seeking the best comprehensive urbanistic [sic] proposals for connecting the
city centre with both waterfronts of
the Váh River. The proposal Tracing
Trenčín submitted by the Swedish
team Mandaworks AB and Hosper
Sweden AB won the first prize. The
jury highlighted the way the proposal
connected existing structures with
new buildings and at the same time
respected the natural flow of the Váh
River.
no exception. The far-right and
populist Sverigedemokraterna now
has representatives in both the
Swedish and European parliaments. What fuels extremists in
your homeland?
TSS: The general trend we see in
many European countries with extremists gaining popularity is worrying and one of the biggest challenges
for the EU in the future. We must
show the inhabitants of the EU what
we can offer and the importance of being together in an open society. We
must fight xenophobia, racism and
isolationism together. One of the
biggest tasks for the EU is to bring the
EU closer to the people. We were
happy to see that voter turnout in
Sweden increased to over 50 percent
(51.1 percent) in the EP elections. This
is of course still a figure that we think
is too low, but it was important that
we are now on an increasing trend.
The EU as a whole has been taking
the blame for many of the economic
problems of the member states in the
last years, and this has also contributed to the view among some that
globalisation is evil. I firmly believe
that globalisation within a sustainable framework, both from environmental, economic and security perspectives, is the way to future, stable
growth.
We have an important role to play
to fight xenophobia and to work on issues bringing the EU member states
and its inhabitants even closer to each
other. At the same time we must not
TSS: Right-wing parties are on the shy away from the fact that the EU
rise across Europe, and Sweden is cannot and should not do everything.
In general, creating sustainable
cities for the future is of great importance in Sweden. Swedish architects,
construction firms, energy companies, city planners, enterprises and
politicians work intensively with
constructing districts that unite
modern architecture with ecological
sustainability. Probably the most
famous example is the project of
Hammarby Sjöstad in Stockholm. The
‘Hammarby model’ has become a tool
for environmentally friendly city development around the world. I think
Sweden has much to offer when it
comes to sustainable cities of the future.
Sweden also has a very strong tradition in design and fashion and many
famous designers in furniture and
textiles as well as industry design,
graphics and crafts are Swedish. The
Swedish (and Scandinavian) style, often referred to as minimalist, means
clean, simple lines and a strong emphasis on functionality. Pioneers in
the Swedish design field included industrial designers and began adopting
an engineering-driven design approach. A distinguishing feature of
Swedish design over the years has
been a socially-oriented style reflecting people’s situation in life. Swedish
furniture design has been extremely
successful, with everything from
stick-back, Windsor-style chairs,
which remain extremely popular, to
more sophisticated but still practical
pieces.
Some things work better if handled
nationally. Saying this is not being
EU-negative, it is a question of using
EU means effectively. We need a
strong and efficient commission,
ready to focus on policies and actions
where EU action provides added
value, such as growth, employment
and the fight against climate change.
TSS: You serve as the Swedish ambassador to Austria, Slovakia and
Slovenia. Have you had a chance to
explore all these countries? What
do you recall as surprising about
Slovakia?
ND: I have been very impressed
with the presence of many big important companies, not least of which
is the car industry and the faith they
show in Slovakia by investing steadily still. It also strikes me how vivid
and dynamic Bratislava is when it
comes to conferences and seminars.
There always seems to be something
going on, with Globsec being an example of this great dynamism. It is
also worth mentioning how important the Visegrad-4 cooperation has
become. This is visible both in regional cooperation and in the EU, where
the V4 countries gain weight with
common initiatives. We therefore
look forward to Slovakia’s presidency
in the V4.
Luckily I have been able to travel
in Slovakia. I have seen beautiful
nature and tasted good wines. I am
also impressed by promising young
Slovak opera artists. They are very
good ambassadors of Slovak culture in
the world.
BUSINESS / NEWS
10 June 16 – 29, 2014
RIGHTS: Impasse continues
Continued from pg 1
“I urge you to address the
situation as quickly as possible and thus confirm that
the Slovak parliament promotes democracy, human
rights and the rule of law,”
European Board of the International Ombudsman Institute (IOI) President Peter
Tyndall wrote in a letter addressed to Speaker of Parliament Pavol Paška and
provided by Dubovcová’s office to the SITA newswire.
The organisation, with
160 members in 90 countries,
suggests that undermining
the work of any ombudsperson is understood internationally as evidence of a lack
of respect for citizens’ rights.
Dubovcová in her annual
report warned about the
problem of malnourished
children in reform centres
and boarding schools and
called on parliament to address the violation of the
rights of these children. She
also noted that the violation
of children’s rights appears as
a systemic failure, SITA reported.
Dubovcová had already
warned about malnourished
children in reform centres in
May, based on a survey conducted in these facilities suggesting that breakfast for
children aged 6-11 costs
€0.33, while a whole-day
Jana Dubovcová speaking to a nearly empty hall.
meal costs €2.28 per day.
Food for 18 year olds costs
€2.69 per day. To demonstrate that the state financing of food for children in
these facilities is insufficient,
Dubovcová brought a sample
of the daily menu to MPs on
the parliamentary committee
for education.
She also noted that these
centres use dubious methods,
such
as
gynaecological
checkups of girls each time
they leave the institution or
shaving children’s head regardless of their age as a hygienic precaution, SITA reported.
Photo: SITA
Roma children made up
the majority in most schools
for children with special
needs that she visited,
Dubovcová noted in her report, adding that most of
these children face language
barriers and did not attend
pre-school.
Parliament has requested
the government to address
the issue of the headquarters
of Dubovcová’s office, which
is now in rented premises,
not a state-owned building.
The US Embassy in Bratislava however has noticed
Dubovcová’s
efforts
and
presented her with the Hu-
ADVERTISEMENT
SATURDAY JUNE 28 2014 , from 5 p.m.
AREÁL DIVOKÁ VODA, VODNÉ DIELO - CUNOVO
The price of the ticket
includes:
7UDGLWLRQDO$PHULFDQ)RRG‡
$WWUDFWLYHVHOHFWLRQRIEHHUZLQH‡
and non-alcoholic drinks
$FWLYLWLHVIRUNLGV‡
(playground, petting zoo, jumping castle)
(QWHUWDLQPHQWIRUWKH\RXQJDWKHDUW‡
(mechanical bull, line dancing)
0XVLFDO3HUIRUPDQFHV‡
)LUHZRUNV‡
FREE RETURN SHUTTLE BUS PROVIDED!
TICKETS ON SALE
at the AmCham ofÀce!
‡0HPEHUVLQDGYDQFH(85
‡&KLOGUHQ²\HDUV(85
‡1RQ0HPEHUVLQDGYDQFH(85
‡´$WWKHJDWHµIRUDOODGXOWV(85
TICKETS AVAILABLE AT THE AMCHAM OFFICE
(1st Áoor at the Hotel Crowne Plaza, Bratislava)
Prices include VAT
Contact AmCham with any questions:
[email protected] or
02/54 64 05 34
SP013291/001
man Rights Defender Award
on April 2 in recognition for
“her efforts to defend and
promote the rights of all
Slovak citizens, and to ensure
those rights are recognised
and upheld by all relevant institutions
throughout
Slovakia”, according to an
April memo sent to The Slovak Spectator.
Instead of seriously dealing with Dubovcová’s reports,
state officials have shown a
habit of accusing her of violating the law and mixing
politics with her human
rights agenda. At a specially
summoned session of parliament on January 30, which
featured what some have
termed hate speech by a
high-level Smer official,
deputies of the ruling party
rejected a resolution drafted
by the opposition condemning the government’s
treatment of Dubovcová.
Then, in a vote orchestrated by the ruling Smer,
deputies expressed concerns
over what Smer called an abuse of the issue to stir antiRoma and anti-police sentiments, with the speaker of
parliament proposing to
move Dubovcová’s office out
of Bratislava to the eastern
part of the country.
When speaking to the
press on June 10, Dubovcová
noted that her recommendations pertaining to last year’s
controversial police raid in
Moldava nad Bodvou have
not been carried out, the
TASR newswire reported.
Since last summer, international groups have confronted Slovakia over the controversial police raid.
The Roma settlement informally named Budulovská
was raided by 63 police officers on June 19, 2013. They
were purportedly seeking
seven men for which they
had arrest warrants. They
found none of those men, but
violence ensued and 15 other
Roma were taken to the police station.
While police allege they
were attacked upon entering
the settlement, none of the 15
detained were ever charged
with a crime resulting from
the clash. Several of the Roma
were injured. An NGO active
in the settlement, ETP Slovensko, documented the injuries with photographs.
After Dubovcová tried to
draw the government’s attention to the raid, Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák accused
her of lying, threatening police officers and harassing the
government on political
grounds.
Although the ministry’s
first investigation of the raid
found nothing wrong when
assessing the incident, a subsequent independent probe
resulted in the launch of a
criminal prosecution over
four acts: the abuse of powers
of a public official, the violation of privacy, stirring mayhem and the crime of torture
and other inhumane or cruel
treatment.
AGE: Retirement
age to go up
to the pensions of retirees decreases, will worsen.
“Presently we have in
More changes will be
Slovakia about a 2.7-million
needed
strong group of people which
represents the labour force,”
While the discussion
Baláž told Pravda. “But curabout the annuity revision
rently only 2.3 million people
focused on the share penreally work and pay contribusioners should draw from
tions into the social system.
their second pillar’s savings
And also many of them
via lifelong pensions and
what they can draw based on ‘optimise’ their contributheir own will, demographic tions and do not contribute
and economic developments enough. On the opposite side
there are about 1.3 million realready show that Slovakia
ceivers of pensions. Thus,
will need another general
nowadays approximately 1.7
overhaul within several
years, part of which will also workers contribute per one
pensioner. But in 2030 this
involve raising the retirewill be only 1.24, in 2050 only
ment age.
0.82 and in 2060 only 0.74.”
The current old-age penAccording to the Statistsion scheme is based on three
pillars. The first one is pay-as- ics Office, which published
you-go, the second, launched data about Slovakia’s demographic development in 2013,
in 2005 within the last reform, is the capital private pil- the country’s population is
lar, and the third is the volun- aging faster than originally
expected.
tary supplementary pillar.
“Expected gains from the
The second pillar has been rebirth rate and migration have
vamped several times since
not materialised; the process
2005, with the most significof aging has intensified,”
ant changes being its switch
Zuzana Podmanická from the
from obligatory to voluntary
Statistics Office said, as cited
and reducing the contributions savers pay into it from 9 by TASR, adding that if the
current development does
percent of their salary to 4
not stop, the Slovak populapercent, which should intion will be one of the oldest
crease to 6 percent by 2024.
in the European Union withThe other 9 percent go into
in 20-30 years.
Sociálna Poisťovňa, which
Baláž estimates that
manages the first pillar. CurSlovakia will need to reform
rently about 1.2 million Slovits pension scheme after six
aks save in the second pillar,
years, i.e. around 2020, as the
and their aggregate savings
current one will not be susexceed €6 billion. Suppletainable over the long-term.
mentary pension insurance
The scheme would need to be
companies administer €1.39
reformed not only because of
billion in the third pillar.
the shrinking number of
But while the old-age
workers contributing to penpension scheme was resions and the increasing
formed to reduce the burden
number of pensioners, but
on the state, the number of
people making contributions also because of the increasing
into the pay-as-you-go pillar, age of pensioners and related
health-care costs. He points
and from which pensions
out that while nowadays
were previously exclusively
Slovakia spends about 18 perpaid, has been decreasing,
cent of GDP on health care
which means that Slovakia
and the social sphere, this
will have to come up with
share is expected to increase
new measures.
to 20 percent by 2030. To
Experts estimate that
tackle this problem, Slovakia
Slovakia’s population will
would be forced to introduce
shrink either because of an
payments in health care or
outflow of people working
reduce the rate of wage reabroad or the low birth rate.
placement.
The Central and Eastern
Slovakia is already planEurope Development Institute estimates that Slovakia’s ning to gradually increase
the retirement age in 2017,
population might decrease
from its current 5.4 million to which is now 62, while it will
base this increase on average
5.1 million by 2060, the onlife expectancy. It is estimline edition of the Pravda
ated that the retirement age
daily wrote. The population
decline endangers the opera- will rise every seven years by
roughly one year. This means
tion of the state as well as its
that today 50-year-old people
economic growth.
“People in retirement age will retire at over 63, and
do not pay taxes,” sociologist those who are 40 today will
retire at 65.
Miloslav Bahna told Pravda,
“We do not want to scare
adding that this results in
people, but we do not have
expenditures on social inanother possibility,” Jozef
vestments, health care and
Burian, the state secretary of
care for people with longthe Labour Ministry said, as
term illnesses.
cited by Pravda. “Also, neighVladimír Baláž, a probouring countries are adoptgnosticator with the Slovak
ing measures in this direcAcademy of Sciences (SAV),
tion, even much more
expects that the trend,
drastically than we are here
whereby the number of
working people contributing in Slovakia.”
Continued from pg 4
NEWS
www.spectator.sk
PATH: Philanthropy 'a normal duty'
Continued from pg 3
Kiska claims he put Sk30
million (about €1 million)
into the project at its start.
Before long Dobrý Anjel became very successful. By
May 2014, the number of
regular donors participating
in the project exceeded
143,000, with Kiska admitting to Sme that after he became well-known through
the presidential campaign,
the number increased dramatically.
Kiska claims he felt he
should be helping others
early on, after he returned
from the US and before he
made a fortune.
“When one creates revenue and values, one starts
thinking what sense it all has,
and what should be happening
in one’s life,” he told Sme in
2007, when his charity project
was still rather new and included about 28,000 donors.
First, he thought he should
help his hometown, Poprad,
perhaps by building a private
hospital there, but finally he
settled on the idea of a big
project to help cancer patients.
Kiska does not hide that he
was inspired by Western,
mainly American, philanthropists.
“I’ve always considered it a
normal duty,” he told Sme
seven years ago.
Kiska’s work both in
business and charity has
brought him public acclaim.
In 2006, he was awarded the
title Manager of the Year by
Trend, and in 2011 he won
the Crystal Wing prize for
philanthropy.
Kiska announced his
presidential candidacy in
2012, and in May 2013 he
left Dobrý Anjel altogether.
Speculations about his motivation to run for president
have abounded since the
very start. Some have been
critical, saying his candidacy throws a bad light on
the charity project (see box
about charity). Kiska’s explanation is that both in
business and in charity he
has struggled with various
obstacles, which eventually
led him to believe that the
change needs to come from
above, and he decided he
could be the one to facilitate it.
In many ways, comparisons with JFK have some
accuracy. Like Kennedy,
Kiska is the youngest person
to be elected as his country’s
president. The two men are
alike in their political orientation. Both men assumed
their office with optimism
and a project to bring about
change. But whether Kiska
can live up to the comparison remains to be seen.
An angel for president?
THANKS to his Dobrý Anjel (Good Angel) project, Andrej
Kiska became Slovakia’s best-known businessman-turnedphilanthropist even before he launched his presidential
campaign.
He nonetheless could not avoid the criticism that he abused his charitable activities for political ends. And not only
from outsiders, but also from his former friend and Dobrý
Anjel co-founder Igor Brossmann, who claimed that he and
Kiska promised each other they would not go into politics
when they founded the charity.
Kiska’s philanthropic history goes back to 2005, when he
sold his Triangel and Quatro companies and invested some of
the money into founding Dobrý Anjel. The project is a unique
charity system which has attracted thousands of Slovaks
thanks to its transparency. Within the system, families of
oncology patients receive regular monthly allowances from
the organisation, and the donors can track down exactly how
much they have paid and whom their money went to. The
costs of running the system are covered from the money that
the founders of the charity deposited to start – Kiska claims
to have invested the equivalent of €1 million.
After initial hardship the system ran smoothly, but the
two founders started having differing opinions about the
way the charity should be run and financed, and Brossmann
left the project.
“I did not like the fact he was going to abuse the Angel,”
Brossman told the Pravda daily after he publicly supported
Milan Kňažko, one of Kiska’s main competitors in the presidential race. He claimed he knew about Kiska’s intentions to
run two years in advance.
Kiska, in contrast, claimed for the Trend weekly that he
only decided to run in March or April 2012, when his project
to build a philanthropic hospital failed. That was the point
when he realised that he does not have enough power to
change things like malfunctioning health care unless he
goes into politics, he said.
Kiska left Dobrý Anjel in May 2013. His wife Martina succeeded him as the board director.
By Michaela Terenzani
Foreigners learning Slovak
BY RADKA
MINARECHOVÁ
Spectator staff
FOR THE 24th time, the special summer school programme will offer classes for
foreigners wanting to learn
the basics of the Slovak language as well as the country’s
people, culture and history.
The Summer University of
Slovak Language and Culture is
a three-week intensive language course focusing on teaching and developing the Slovak
language. The students attend
various lectures, workshops
and trips focused on contemporary Slovakia and its history
and culture. This year it will
take place between July 7 and 25
in Modra-Harmónia, about 25
kilometres from Bratislava.
“Every year about 80-90
foreigners, including 60 compatriots, who study the Slovak
language for various reasons
apply for the courses,”
Katarína Nevrlová of the Institute of Language and Academic Preparation of Foreign
Students and Compatriots,
which is a part of the Centre of
Continuing Education of the
Comenius University in Bratislava, the organiser of the
summer school, told The
Slovak Spectator.
Foreigners will learn the basics of Slovak.
Among the most frequent
reasons cited by foreigners for
learning Slovak is that they
have Slovak ancestors, they
study the Slovak language at a
university in the country they
live in, or because they want
to continue their studies at a
university in Slovakia.
At the beginning of the
programme the participants
take a placement test. Based
on the results they are divided
into four groups: beginners,
pre-intermediates, intermediates and advanced. The
groups are small, usually
comprised of six to 12 people.
Photo: Sme
The students spend mornings learning the language,
while in the afternoon they
can choose from various language activities, like phonetics, conversation, grammar
seminar, stylistics, school of
drama, creative writing and
singing, Nevrlová said.
The university will also
organise various lectures and
social activities with cultural
representatives. This year it
will offer the presentation of
the Literary Information
Centre joined with a discussion about contemporary
Slovak literature with Slovak
writer Michal Hvorecký, musician Martin Geišberg, linguist Sibyla Mislovičová from
the Ľudovít Štúr Institute of
Linguistics of the Slovak
Academy of Sciences (SAV),
and drama reviewer Juliana
Beňová.
In addition, participants
will take trips to Modra, the
Červený Kameň Castle, the
Small Carpathian Museum in
Pezinok, as well as to Bratislava, where they will visit
memorials in the town’s
centre. The organisers also
plan a three-day excursion
around Slovakia in the Orava
region and the Low Tatras.
During this trip they will visit
Bojnice Castle, Orava Castle,
the open-air museum in
Zuberec, the town of Banská
Štiavnica, the wooden church
in Hronsek and the mountain
railroad in Čierny Balog,
Nevrlová continued.
At the end of the course
students will receive a diploma according to their level
of language competence.
“This year we have students coming from Russia,
Ukraine, the US, Philippines,
Poland, Vietnam, Serbia,
Hungary and Romania,”
Nevrlová said, adding that
Ukrainians, Russians and
Serbians have so far made up
the highest number of students.
June 16 – 29, 2014
11
GOV: Balance needed
case in Slovakia.
“If we look at the way the
Political analyst Miroslav constitution’s provisions are
formulated concerning the
Kusý also believes Kiska is
not a person to seek conflicts division of power, [the presand he has demonstrated his ident being the counter-balance to the government] is
style as attempting to solve
even a natural state,” he said.
problems in a conciliatory
This balance is secured
manner, using a sensible
through the president’s
tone without provoking
power to veto a bill and restrong emotions.
turn it to parliament, or the
“Of course, much depower to countersign various
pends on the other side too,
appointments.
what stance the prime minFico was trying to do just
ister takes towards [Kiska]
the opposite and concentrate
and whether it will escalate
power in his own hands
some conflicting situations
when running for president ,
or not,” he told The Slovak
Mesežnikov noted.
Spectator.
On the other hand, Kiska
Slovaks experienced difficult relations between pres- does not seem to have any
power-related ambitions of
idents and prime ministers
his own.
during the time of Vladimír
Mečiar, who gave then pres“He has not suggested
ident Michal Kováč a hard
that he would have any amtime under his term, Kusý
bition to build some other
recalled. Back then, “the
power centre or to politically
prime minister was driving
influence the system, change
the malevolent attitude toit, or strengthen the powers
wards the president to the
of the president,” he said.
extreme”, he noted.
The presidential office is
perceived as mainly ceremonial, with little influence
Balancing power
over the day-to-day affairs of
All through the presiden- the country. This perception
has been strengthened in the
tial campaign, running
past 10 years, when
against the prime minister
Gašparovič served in the ofand the leader of the oneparty government, Kiska has fice.
stressed his ambition to serve
“When someone is
as a counter-balance to the
phlegmatic and does not care
government. Following his
much, like Gašparovič, then
election, he maintained the
nothing is happening, the
same rhetoric, talking about
presidential post stops work“a healthy balance”. If he
ing effectively and remains
manages to do that, it would
somewhere in the
certainly come as a change
background,” Kusý told The
compared with his predeSlovak Spectator. Kusý gave
cessor, Ivan Gašparovič, who examples of big presidents in
was inclined towards the rul- Czechoslovakia’s history,
ing party.
among them first Czechoslovak President Tomáš Garrigue
Balancing the power of
the government is not an op- Masaryk, his successor Edvard
Beneš, and later Václav Havel,
tion, but a constitutional
duty of the president, accord- as those who managed to ining to Mesežnikov, given the sert drive, content and energy
into the presidential office.
fact that the constitution is
based on the division of
“So yes, when [Kiska]
power and a system of
puts everything he promises
checks and balances. This
into it, it should be for the
counter-balance is particubetter, and it should be felt
larly important in a situation very intensively that there’s
where the ruling party cona president – a personality,”
trols all the other positions
Kusý concluded.
in the state (with the exception of the ombudswoman’s
Radka Minarechová
office), as is currently the
contributed to this report
Continued from pg 3
CLASSIFIEDS
ENGLISH LANGUAGE WORSHIP
Bratislava International Church
Sundays, 9:30 at historic Small Lutheran Church
(Maly evanjelicky kostol) in central Bratislava
(near Hodzovo namestie); on Lycejna at
intersection with Panenska 26/28.
Children's Sunday School provided.
Everyone Welcome.
Information at 02-5443-3263
Web Site: www.bratislavainternationalchurch.org
SP013235/034
REAL ESTATE
Apartments
for RENT:
Drotárska – Bôrik – 2 rooms,
78 sqm, silent, garage
Strakova – downtown –
3 rooms, top floor
Nivy – large top floor mesonet,
4 rooms
Take your
chance
and place your
classified advertisement
For information call:
02 / 59 233 312,
www.madison.sk, 0905 - 659156,
[email protected]
SP013230/021
or e-mail:
[email protected]
12
CULTURE
June 16 – 29, 2014
The story of Sobrance's spa
Western SLOVAKIA
Koncert
pre Bratislavu / Concert for
Bratislava – The opening week
of the Cultural Summer/Castle
Festivities Bratislava will
bring a concert of the Slovak
Chamber Orchestra of Bohdan
Warchal, with Chamber orchestra ZOE and choirs performing the works of MarcAntoine Charpentier, Mozart,
Telemann, Britten and Josef
Suk’s Meditation on the early
Czech hymn St Venceslaus,
played for the 100th anniversary of the start of World
War I.
Starts: June 20, 19:30; St
Martin’s Cathedral. Admission: free. More info: www.
citylife.sk.
Bratislava
l LIVE MUSIC: Billy Idol – Bri-
FOUR springs containing
cold, sulphurous, salty water were known to have existed in the eastern-Slovak
town of Sobrance
as early as the
18th century.
The place belonged to the family
of
Count
Sztáray, who in 1822 had the
surrounding
marshes
drained and built two new
sources of drinking water.
By that point, wooden spa
buildings had been built
there, housing 45 tubs.
Sobrance’s locals seized
the opportunity offered by
nature and built a spa that
also included a dance hall, a
music ensemble and a beautiful park. Guests obviously
enjoyed the facility: by the
mid 19th century 500 famil-
HISTORY TALKS
ies were visiting the spa
within a single season.
The spa continued to increase the quality of its services when in the 19th century it began offering massages and hydrotherapy.
The spa’s successful
150-year run came to an abrupt halt in the Second
World War when it was
nearly levelled by air raids.
Today, the healing water is
used in a local hospital.
This postcard from 1930
shows the spa was
situated in a beautiful area. It is a
mystery, though,
why the photographer had only
men standing in the picture.
It was more common at
that time for shots of spas to
show gentlemen posing
with their well-dressed
wives, which was seen as
making a facility seem more
enchanting.
By Branislav Chovan
Hail classical music!
ENRICHING Bratislava’s cultural life for 10 years, the
Viva Musica! Festival is a
unique summer open-air
festival that presents classical music in a non-traditional way, thereby busting
notions held by some that
the genre is elitist and dull.
In 2014, Viva Musica! is
merging with the Summer
of Culture Festival Bratislava and Castle Festivities
2014
and
Summer
Shakespearian Plays. This
collaboration will kick off
with a performance of A
Midsummer Night’s Dream
on June 21 that combines
Shakespeare’s classic comedy with music by German
composer Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, performed
by the Slovak Philharmonic
and conducted by Leoš
Svárovský. The performance
takes place at 20:30 in the
Main Square and is free for
all.
The festival continues
the following day with
Mozart’s Magic Flute, as
played by the National Puppet Theatre from Prague in
the
courtyard
of
the
Primate’s Palace at 17:00. In
the evening a huge orches-
tra consisting of talented
children from all over Slovakia will join the Virtuoso
project to perform music
conducted by Igor Dohovič,
again in the Main Square.
The contemporary classical Quasars Ensemble will
be joined by Dalibor Karvay
on violin to play works by
Alexandre
Tansman,
Maurice
Ravel,
Franz
Waxman,
Alexander
Moyzes
and
Paul
Hindemith on June 24 at
20:00 in the Old Market
Hall. Tickets cost €19.
The Old Market Hall will
witness the following day a
unique project with Spanish counter-tenor Xavier
Sabata, who selected the
“negative heroes” within
the “Händl: Bad Guys”
concept, illustrating that
Baroque opera need not
only embody noble ideals
and moral virtues.
In Bratislava he will sing
for the first time with the Il
Pomo d’Oro ensemble, led
by violinist and conductor
Riccardo Minasi, who specialises in historically-informed interpretations of
early music on period instruments.
tish rock icon will play with
guitarist and long-time musical partner Steve Stevens.
Their collaborations yielded
numerous hits in the 1980s.
Starts: June 20, 19:30,
Aegon Aréna NTC, Príko–
pova 4. Admission: €34
-€139. Tel: 02 /5293-3321;
www.ticketportal.sk.
Bratislava
l HISTORICAL
MENT: Ubránili
RE-ENACT-
Sme Sa! – We
Managed to Defend Ourselves! –
The 205th anniversary of the
siege that nearly saw Emperor
Napoleon conquer Bratislava
will be celebrated with a re-enactment, including a periodstyle camp, a military training
and the battle itself (at 17:30),
complete with cannons (at
21:30).
Starts: June 22, 10:00; Park
of Janko Kráľ, Tyršovo Embankment of the Danube
River. Admission: free. More
info: www.citylife.sk.
Underground goes classic
Underground Goes Classic is a concert merging rock
band Korben Dallas with the
Orchestra Viva Musica!,
conducted by Braňo Kostka,
on June 26 at 20:00 in the
Old Market Hall (tickets cost
€19–€29).
The same venue will
present on the next day the
classic 1922 German vampire
film Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens by F. W.
Murnau, accompanied by
the music of Slovak composer
Vladislav
‘Slnko’
Šarišský, made specifically
for the film. Tickets cost €15.
The concluding concert of
the whole festival is devoted
to opera, with renowned
Slovak
singers
(Adriana
Kučerová, Jana Kurucová,
Miroslav Dvorský, Dalibor
Jenis and Štefan Kocán) performing arias by Verdi, Bizet,
Rossini and Puccini, with the
Orchestra Viva Musica! led by
Marián Leginus. The concert,
called Viva Opera!, takes
place on June 28 at 20:00 at
Bratislava Castle, and tickets
cost €19-€59.
EVENTS COUNTRYWIDE
Bratislava
l CLASSICAL MUSIC:
Bratislava
l THEATRE FESTIVAL:
Istropolitana Project 2014 – The biannual international festival
of theatre academies brings
theatre performances, workshops, lectures and debates
revolving around the genre.
Starts: June 19-25, various
sites. Admission: various.
More
info:
www.
istropolitanaproject.sk.
Bratislava
l MUSICAL
Noc
EVENT:
Hudby / The Night of Music –
SINGER and pianist Jamie Cullum, one of Britain’s best-selling
jazz musicians, comes to Slovakia for the first time. On June 19 at
20:00 in Aegon Aréna NTC in Príkopova 4, Bratislava, he will play
his own compositions as well as outstanding cover versions and
a lot of improvisations. Tickets cost €32-€99 (VIP) and can be
purchased via 02/5293-3321, or www.ticketportal.sk. This show
also serves as the intro to Bratislava / Banská Štiavnica City
Beats music festival, which will take place in two cities this year,
offering prominent artists like German band Jazzanova (with US
singer Paul Randolph), Fink (UK), Lulu James (UK), John Newman (UK), Sísí Ey (ICE), Tamir Grinberg Trio (ISR), the band James
(UK), Déja-vu (Cuba) and Slovak performers. More information
can be found (in Slovak) at www.bacitybeats.sk, tickets again in
Photo: Courtesy of Ján Papač
Ticketportal.
This event brings concerts for
children, a “musical circus”,
contemporary classical music, French classics, jazz, and
opera, as well as debates, lectures, educational programmes for children and more.
Starts: June 20, 9:00-midnight; various sites, including
cities outside Bratislava. More
info: www.citylife.sk.
Bratislava
l HISTORICAL
RE-ENACTMENT: Coronation Festival 2014
– The festival of re-enactments
of coronations that took place
in Bratislava will this year offer
the coronation of Joseph I, who
became Hungarian king at the
age of 9, but died at 32.
Starts: June 21, 11:00 (16:00
coronation parade); Bratislava
Castle - Main Square. Admission: free. More info: www.
coronation.sk.
Bratislava
l THEATRE IN ENGLISH:
Kukucheers – The Bridgin’ Drama team has produced “another Slovak classic performed
in English”, this time re-making a short story by Martin
Kukučín into a comedy.
Starts: June 23, 20:00;
Malá scéna STU theatre,
Dostojevs-kého Rad 7. Admission:
€6.
More
info:
www.ticketportal.sk;
www.thebridge.sk.
Central SLOVAKIA
Žilina
l FILM FESTIVAL:
Fest Anča –
The International Festival of
Animated Films brings hundreds of works, both Slovak and
foreign, including Michel
Gondry’s Is the Man Who Is Tall
Happy?: An Animated Conversation with Noam Chomsky.
Starts: June 18-22; various
sites. Admission: €18 (for the
whole festival, in advance) THE USE THE City Festival of €24 (at the site). More info:
street art returns to Košice, www.festanca.sk.
Bratislava
l CLASSICAL MUSIC:
Quasars
Ensemble – This Slovak band
which plays mostly contemporary classical music opens
the cycle of Summer Evenings
in the Bjornson Courtyard of
the Reduta building with
works by Bohuslav Martinů,
Alexander Moyzes, Georges
facing a new challenge after
last year’s stint as the European Capital of Culture 2013.
This year it will offer the city’s
streets to musicians, actors
and dancers, graffiti artists,
designers, and architects.
Throughout the weekend seven streets in the centre will
turn into an open-air gallery, a
theatre stage, a concert hall
and an architectural studio,
offering ball free-styling, guerrilla gardening, hip-hop workshop, and more. More information can be found at
www.usethecity.sk.
Photo:
Eastern SLOVAKIA
Košice
l EXHIBITION: Boží
Bojovníci
– Po stopách Tajomných Hradov – Lord’s Warriors - Following the Mysterious Castles The exhibition shows the history of the Hussite movement
in Great Hungary, particularly
the Battle of Grünwald in 1410.
Open: Tue-Sat 9:00-17:00,
until July 31; Východoslovenské múzeum / Eastern-Slovak
Museum, Námestie Maratónu
mieru 2. Admission: €2-€4.
Tel: 055/6220-309; www.
vsmuzeum.sk.
Use the City 2013, French Institute in Slovakia
By Zuzana Vilikovská
N A M E
Weather updates and forecasts from across Slovakia
can be found at www.spectator.sk/weather.
Auric, Alfredo Casella and Alexandre Tansman, as conducted by Ivan Buffa.
Starts: June 28, 19:00;
Slovak Philharmonic, Reduta,
E. Suchoňa Square 1. Admission: €6. Tel: 02/2047-5233;
www.filharmonia.sk.
Monday
Tuesday
Blanka
Bianka
Adolf
June 16
June 17
D A Y
J U N E
By Zuzana Vilikovská
2 0 1 4
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Vratislav
Alfréd
Valéria
Alojz
Paulína
June 19
June 20
June 21
June 22
June 18
A Slovak‘s name day (meniny) is as important as his or her birthday. It is traditional to present friends or co-workers with a small gift,
such as chocolates or flowers, and to wish them všetko najlepšie k meninám (Happy name day).