Slovakia

BRATISLAVA, SLovakia (AP) — Slovakia’s government has proposed a plan to give people 60 and older a 500-euro ($568) bonus if they get vaccinated against COVID-19, the finance minister said Wednesday.

The measure, announced by Finance Minister Igor Matovic, should boost inoculations in the European Union country with one of the bloc’s lowest vaccination rates. So far, only 46.1% of the nation’s 5.5 million people have been fully vaccinated.

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) — Slovakia’s leaders have proposed a national lockdown as hospitals across the European Union country are hitting their limits amid a record surge of coronavirus infections.

Inspired by neighboring Austria, the Slovak government is set to discuss a lockdown for all — vaccinated and unvaccinated alike — at its session Wednesday. Prime Minister Eduard Heger said it’s necessary to act “immediately.” His four-party coalition government was mulling a two or three-week lockdown.

BRATISLAVA (Reuters) - Slovakia’s new prime minister sought to defuse a row with Russia over a COVID-19 vaccine shipment on Friday, saying it was in Slovakia’s interest to secure the Russian Sputnik V vaccine after Moscow angrily accused it of contract violations.

Slovakia ordered 2 million doses of Sputnik V from Russia, of which 200,000 arrived on March 1. The deal caused an uproar, having been brokered by the then Prime Minister Igor Matovic without informing his coalition partners, who opposed using Sputnik V in Slovakia for lacking EU regulator approval.

TRENCIN, Slovakia (Reuters) - Long queues formed outside coronavirus testing centres in Slovakia on Saturday, as the country embarked on a bid to test most of the country’s 5.5 million inhabitants over a single weekend.

Up to 20,000 medics plus support teams including soldiers staffed around 5,000 sites to administer the antigen swab tests.

09 Oct 2020; MEMO: Turkish official media reported that the foreign ministers of Turkey and Greece met on Thursday for the first time since tensions erupted between the two member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), over the eastern Mediterranean’s energy rights and maritime borders demarcation.

PEZINOK, Slovakia (Reuters) - A Slovak court ruled on Thursday that an influential businessman was not guilty in the case of the murder of journalist Jan Kuciak, the presiding judge said.

The court found one other defendant guilty of taking part in the murder, but did not find evidence the hit was ordered by businessman Marian Kocner.

BRATISLAVA (Reuters) - The euro zone economy is growing along the lines the European Central Bank projected in June, so policymakers have time to wait for more hard data, Governing Council member Peter Kazimir said on Wednesday.

The euro zone economy appeared initially to rebound quicker than expected from its pandemic-induced recession but more recent data, including a weak PMI reading suggested the recovery is flattening and the bloc could fall short of forecasts in the third quarter.

BRATISLAVA (Reuters) - Slovak President Zuzana Caputova appointed Igor Matovic as prime minister on Saturday to lead a new center-right government coalition after a February election swept anti-graft opposition parties to power.

The government handover comes as the central European country of 5.5 million battles the spreading coronavirus outbreak that has put Europe on lockdown, pressuring Matovic’s four-party coalition to agree a cabinet quickly.

1 March 2020; AFP: A centre-right anti-graft party is on course to form Slovakia's next government after voters ousted the governing leftists in polls marked by backlash over a journalist's killing in the eurozone state.

Vowing to push through anti-corruption measures in the judiciary and police, the leader of the winning OLaNO party Igor Matovic managed to galvanise voter outrage over the murder of journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee and the high-level graft their deaths exposed.

BRATISLAVA, March 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Slovak voters handed a resounding victory to the centre-right, anti-graft OLaNO opposition party in Saturday’s general election, dominated by an angry backlash over the 2018 murder of a journalist probing corruption in the eurozone state.