Hi, Slovakia watchers. Some celebrities think they can do anything — even tag their names beneath Mount Everest. It’s Thursday, 30 October, and you’re reading Today in Slovakia.

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Slovak rapper Separ — real name Michael Kmeť — has managed to turn his trek to Everest Base Camp into an international embarrassment.

The rapper, who has over half a million followers on Instagram, proudly posted photos of himself spray-painting his name on a hut and a boulder in the UNESCO-listed Sagarmatha National Park. “Since I’m a writer, I always tag,” he explained breezily. Later, after the outrage hit, he claimed he had permission — or that the stone was already marked and he merely “highlighted” it.

Nepal was not amused. Local guide Adhikari Madhav, who manages a trekking agency in the region, accused him of showing “zero respect” and said the rapper “deserved a short stay in jail — just as a warning”. Other Slovak travellers, including singer Dorota Nvotová and adventurer Martin Navrátil, condemned the stunt and even decided to raise funds to have the graffiti removed.

Context matters. Everest Base Camp lies in a strictly protected area where park rules explicitly ban carving or painting on rocks or buildings without written approval. “Everest is not a wall for names,” wrote Madhav. “It’s a sacred space.”

Who is Separ? Once seen as one of Slovakia’s most socially conscious rappers, he released a song promoting CPR first aid in 2018, and in 2021 a duet with Jana Kirschner about school bullying. He’s recently also appeared on the Slovak version of Dragon’s Den and made headlines for using fake parking permits in Bratislava. He’s known for blunt opinions — claiming that “fascism exists in the West” — and for an ego as large as his fanbase.

Today in Slovakia take: To Nepal he went trekking — with spray cans. A 38-year-old man with the instincts of a teenager. Separ may have reached 5,364 metres, but his judgment stayed somewhere near sea level. But if the goal was attention, he’s nailed it.

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Law & disorder: Minister Susko blames media for rise in crime

Justice Minister Boris Susko (source: TASR – Jaroslav Novák)

Shoplifters running wild. Slovakia’s towns say petty crime has exploded since a 2024 change to the Criminal Code made most small thefts punishable only by fines. Store guards and mayors warn the situation is “untenable” — with thieves openly looting shops for goods worth tens of euros, knowing they won’t face jail time.

Mayors vs. minister. On Thursday, mayors from Slovakia’s biggest cities — including Bratislava’s Matúš Vallo, Nitra’s Marek Hattas and Union of Towns chief Richard Rybníček — confronted Justice Minister Boris Susko (Smer) over what they call a public-safety crisis, according to Aktuality.sk. The meeting ended without concrete action. “People no longer feel safe,” said Rybníček. “Change was needed yesterday.”

The law behind the mess. A Criminal-Code reform pushed through by the ruling coalition of Smer, Hlas and the nationalist SNS last March raised the threshold for theft to be treated as a crime from €266 to €700 — and scrapped a clause nicknamed the “horálka law”, which had sent repeat offenders to prison. Now, repeat shoplifters face only minor fines that can’t be enforced if they have no income or property.

Susko shifts blame. The justice minister insists the spike in thefts isn’t the law’s fault. He blames the opposition and media for spreading the idea that “stealing pays”. “They began saying that after the law passed, and offenders may now believe they’ll go unpunished,” he told reporters. He cited police data showing an average shop-theft loss of €60 — too small to have been criminal even under the old rules, he argued.

Police pushback. Local police chiefs say the change clearly emboldened thieves. “It used to have a deterrent effect — a prison risk for repeat offenders,” said Róbert Šiška, head of the municipal police in Žiar nad Hronom. “Now they just get fines they can’t pay.” He also warned of staff shortages forcing city officers to respond to incidents instead of state police.

Rising aggression. Mayors say shoplifters have become more violent. Susko counters that once force or burglary is involved, it’s still a criminal offence — “so it’s not true that all offenders go unpunished.” He urged local leaders to “communicate the law correctly” and stop giving “inaccurate legal interpretations”.

Enter the general prosecutor. Even Maroš Žilinka, a usually cautious figure, has joined the critics — urging the government to re-criminalise repeat petty thefts. Susko hit back that Žilinka “woke up only now”, noting he had raised no objections when the law passed. Susko’s right on this on.

What’s next. Susko says his ministry and the Interior Ministry are preparing tweaks to the misdemeanour law and new guidance for police. Mayors, meanwhile, demand tougher penalties or more officers on the streets. Retailers and opposition MPs claim the coalition’s “soft-touch” reform has backfired — and that, as one mayor put it, “it was too late for change yesterday”.

Ticket to Čičmany

A wooden house in Čičmany, western Slovakia. (source: TASR – Erika Ďurčová)

Cash for culture. Slovakia’s government is exploring how to help the unique folk village of Čičmany, whose hand-painted wooden houses are one of the country’s national symbols. One proposal: charging visitors to enter the village, with revenue going directly to local preservation and development, according to STVR.

Culture Minister Martina Šimkovičová (nominated by the Slovak National Party) said after a regional cabinet meeting that officials were considering “turnstiles or QR codes” to collect the fee. “We must agree on how to get finances into the village that go straight to Čičmany,” she said.

A village living off tourism. Čičmany, with just over a hundred residents, survives almost entirely on visitor income. “It’s very difficult financially,” said mayor Iveta Michalíková. “We live from parking fees, accommodation taxes and donations that people send to our transparent account.”

UNESCO ambitions. The ministry is also backing the plan to list the traditional Čičmany ornament on UNESCO’s World Heritage register. The process, Šimkovičová said, should take about two years. “We’ll collect all the necessary materials and submit them for approval.”

The distinctive white geometric pattern, once painted on houses using light clay and later limewash to protect the timber, comes from traditional folk costumes. Today it’s mainly decorative — and widely copied. “The pattern is used everywhere, and people make money from it, but the village gets nothing,” the mayor noted.

Why it matters. A UNESCO listing would raise Čičmany’s international profile, while an entry fee could provide stable funding to maintain its wooden architecture and cultural heritage. For now, the government is weighing whether tourists to Slovakia’s most photographed village will soon need to tap their phones at the gate.

Čičmany deserves more than turnstiles. It deserves vision — and a plan that keeps its heritage alive, not locked behind barriers. Opposition politician Dorota Nvotová says as much in her Facebook post, arguing that places like Čičmany need strategy, not gimmicks. She’s got a point: heritage sites can only endure if they’re managed sustainably, with systems that protect their value while keeping them vibrant. In her view, the real fix lies in a public heritage renewal fund — a long-term vehicle for sites such as Čičmany and Vlkolínec, backed by public funding and smart private investment that genuinely serves cultural preservation.

WHAT THE SLOVAK SPECTATOR HAD ON THURSDAY: 

Metta mess in Slovakia 

Zoroslav Kollár featured on a city light vitrine. (source: SME – Marko Erd)

Meta’s big EU ad freeze? Not quite. Despite a sweeping ban on all political, election and “social issue” ads across Facebook, Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp this month, some Slovak politicians — and a colourful cast of foreign scammers — kept their campaigns running, according to Denník N.

Enter Zoroslav Kollár. The convicted lawyer-turned-entrepreneur — now founding a new party called Právo na pravdu (Right to the Truth) — managed to sneak past Meta’s ad filters. His page, his party, and several friendly accounts all had sponsored posts live for days. One video showed Kollár cracking walnuts; another attacked populist PM Robert Fico’s comments about the self-employed.

Meta hit snooze. It took five days, two nudges from reporters and a PR statement before the company finally pulled the ads. “These breached our rules … we removed them as soon as we were made aware,” a Meta spokesperson insisted.

Fico’s assistant’s friend joined in. Štefan Sivák, aide to an MP from Fico’s Smer party, ran an ad debating the “two genders” theme — racking up thousands of views during the supposed blackout.

Meanwhile, the scammers moved in. Foreign networks exploited the chaos to push fake “pension top-up” schemes. Think: “Some seniors got hundreds more — click to find out why!” The posts misused photos of Slovak and German leaders, and drove users to dodgy investment sites. Meta nuked the ads after a tip-off — but not the pages behind them.

Why the ban anyway? It’s Brussels’ new transparency law on political advertising — demanding platforms clearly label who’s paying, what it costs and who it targets. Meta says it’s “unworkable”. Critics call that nonsense, noting the firm builds lightning-fast ad tech when profits are on the line.

The fallout. Smaller parties and NGOs say they’re the real losers: without paid reach, their voices drown in the algorithmic noise of outrage and memes. Activists now tweak wording to dodge Meta’s filters, hoping the blackout is temporary — and that Silicon Valley’s giants and EU regulators will eventually find a middle ground.

THURSDAY FACEBOOK FEED: Politics by post

COALITION

• Smer: Smer MP Tibor Gašpar is back with another video — this time accusing opposition leader Michal Šimečka’s mother, Marta, of plagiarism, claiming she wrote under a fake byline, “Grassmeier”, while at SME in 2004. In reality, the paper later apologised after discovering that the supposed foreign contributor, Edwin Grassmeier, had lifted stories from German media — with SME initially unaware. Šimečková neither wrote the pieces nor invented the name. The broadside comes as Gašpar’s own son, Pavol — now head of the intelligence service — faces plagiarism claims over his university thesis.

• Hlas: Health Minister Kamil Šaško attended the opening of new children’s psychiatry facilities at the National Institute of Children’s Diseases, while Labour Minister Erik Tomáš launched a “war on scammers” targeting pensioners.

• SNS: : The party says it will send out 33 trial T-shirts in November featuring the slogan “Man – Woman – Snake” and the initials A.D. — a nod to party leader Andrej Danko. The phrase comes from Danko’s September remarks during a constitutional debate, when he quipped that “in paradise, there were only Adam, Eve, and the snake”.

OPPOSITION

• Progressive Slovakia: As Slovaks hit the road for the holidays, Progressive Slovakia’s new billboards take aim at Fico’s government: “Two years of Smer — the consolidation destruction of public finances.” PS boss Michal Šimečka posed proudly beside one.

• SaS: The party has announced another protest march for Wednesday, 5 November, demanding the dismissal of intelligence chief Pavol Gašpar.

• Slovensko: The movement is calling for joint opposition protests on 17 November — the fall of communism, which the Fico government kept as a holiday but removed as a day off. Leader Igor Matovič says SaS, KDH and Demokrati have joined the call, while PS allegedly booked nearby squares for its own events.

• KDH: The Christian Democrats are reminding voters who first championed the EU’s carbon neutrality drive — and the ETS2 scheme for households. Their target: President Peter Pellegrini, who back in December 2019 boasted that Slovakia was the only V4 country to back the European Commission’s Green Deal aiming for climate neutrality by 2050.

In other news

• Transparency International Slovakia says Wednesday’s evening news on state broadcaster STVR was packed with government-friendly coverage — nine PR-style reports in a single bulletin. The analysis found that during the cabinet’s off-site meeting in Višňové, STVR split the story into four glowing segments, while other channels ran just one or two. The opposition got zero airtime. Under director Martina Flašíková, TIS warns, STVR is starting to look less like a public service and more like the government’s loudspeaker.

• The police inspectorate refused to confirm whether police investigators Kevin Dlabaj and Peter Dubovický have left the Veritas team — citing classified status. The pair were behind charges against elite police officers close to Ján Čurilla and linked to high-profile corruption cases like Očistec (Purgatory). Opposition MP Martina Bajo Holečková (SaS) claims they were removed for misconduct, though the Interior Ministry’s inspectorate keeps its lips sealed.

• Far-right activist Daniel Bombic, detained since April on extremism charges, is still managing to communicate with followers via Telegram — sharing antisemitic voice messages and sending “open letters” to Slovak ministers from custody. Prison officials say they lack the legal authority to restrict such communication, as long as it doesn’t break the law. Legal experts warn the case exposes loopholes in Slovakia’s pre-social-media-era Criminal Code.

• From 1 November, parts of Slovakia’s Tatra National Park shut for the winter to protect fragile alpine ecosystems and wildlife recovering from the busy summer season. Rangers will enforce the closure — which lasts until 31 May — covering most high-altitude trails, though a few routes, like Predné Solisko and the path to the Symbolic Cemetery near Popradské pleso, remain open.

In the background on the left, Mengusovský Volovec; at the bottom right, the Mountain Hotel Popradské Pleso by Popradské Lake on Saturday, 18 October 2025. (source: TASR – Veronika Mihaliková)

• From Thursday 30 October through Sunday, most Bratislava public transport routes will run on holiday schedules. Extra services will be added from Thursday to cope with the crowds heading to cemeteries ahead of All Saints’ Day.

• Slovak wages are growing far more slowly than in the rest of central Europe, with net pay up just 54 percent since 2016 compared to more than 100 percent in Hungary and Poland, according to Forvis Mazars. Analysts blame one of the region’s heaviest tax burdens, which leaves Slovak workers with barely half of what employers spend on their salaries. Despite rising productivity, tax and social charges are choking wage growth and competitiveness — and Slovakia’s slide down global tax competitiveness rankings risks scaring off investors.

• Slovak business and consumer confidence slipped again in October, with the economic sentiment index falling by 3.8 points to 93.6 — its lowest since July 2023. The sharpest drop came from industry, but services and consumers also reported waning optimism, according to the Statistics Office.

• By 2026, Slovak workers will fork out about €3,264 a year in health insurance — a figure not far off US costs once pay gaps are factored in. Analyst Martin Vlachynský notes Slovakia’s contributions are among Europe’s highest and lack Germany’s cap, meaning every euro earned is taxed, even prize winnings. But the kicker? The extra cash won’t go to healthcare, instead plugging holes in the state budget — deepening the divide between workers and those insured by the state, and testing Slovakia’s fragile model of social solidarity. (SITA)

THE BRIGHT SIDE

Haute couture for parrots. Meet Kuki, the parrot who’s redefining winter fashion. His owner Miška hand-stitched him a hoodie to keep out the chill — complete with tiny straps and a snug fit under the wings. Social media melted faster than snow on a radiator, though not everyone was convinced dressing parrots is “normal”. 

Smooth sailing for the cops. Thanks to swift teamwork between Slovak and Polish police, a stolen motorboat from the Polish village of Wielka Lipnica was found and returned to its owner. The search ended successfully in rugged Orava terrain, where officers from Námestovo tracked down the missing vessel.

From Slovakia to a US chart. The Slovak singer Karin Ann cracked the official Americana chart in the USA with her single i was never yours, landing at No. 44. She’s the first artist from Slovakia and the Czech Republic to do so, joining heavyweights like Brandi Carlile and Lukas Nelson. Not bad for a breakup song turned breakthrough.  

From tills to flats. COOP Jednota Čadca is going from selling groceries to building homes. The northern Slovak cooperative plans to invest €42 million in Sihly — a new housing zone with 188 flats and two retail galleries.  

Olympic-level parking. Bratislava’s Šancova Street has a new local legend — a car wedged so tightly between an electricity box and a tree that the internet can’t decide what came first: the car or the box. The photo sparked a social media frenzy, with users awarding the mystery driver a “medal for precision” and joking he’s been parked there since before the tree grew. 

Memory wars. Slovak NGO Post Bellum has launched a new project, Attacks on Memory, aimed at countering disinformation and attempts to rewrite historical facts circulating in Slovak and Czech media and politics. Backed by the European Media and Information Fund, the initiative will use data analysis to tackle the most frequent historical falsehoods by March.

FRIDAY’S FRONT PAGES

Sme: Towns against the wind.

Denník N: The PM’s woes.

Hospodárske noviny: Polish fashion chain plans expansion in Slovakia.

Pravda: Gas bills will fall. Energy support will be easier to access.

ON THIS DAY — 31 October: 

1517. Reformation Day marks the moment Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg, challenging the sale of indulgences and sparking a movement to return to the Word. Lutherans in Slovakia and worldwide honour it as a call to renewal — officially recognised as a memorial day in Slovakia since 1993. 

2006. The European Court of Human Rights ruled in Klein v. Slovakia that the state had breached freedom of expression. Journalist Martin Klein had been convicted, in 2000, for a sharply satirical article, published in 1997, criticising Archbishop Ján Sokol’s attempt to ban Miloš Forman’s film The People vs. Larry Flynt as “blasphemous”. His piece used sexual imagery and accused the Archbishop of hypocrisy — and even past links to the secret police. Strasbourg found the conviction “inappropriate”, noting that harsh criticism of a public church leader, however provocative, is protected speech in a democracy.

Friday weather: A clear start, but clouds muscling in from the west later. Daytime highs between 11°C and 17°C. (SHMÚ)

Name day: Aurélia.

That’s all for today — thanks for reading and tagging along. Iryna Uias’s in the chair on Friday. Have a calm weekend and a fun Halloween Friday night (in case you’re out for a spooky adventure).

P.S. If you have suggestions on how our news overview can be improved, you can reach us at [email protected].

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