Foreign Policies

Blanar: I Welcome EU's Decision to Look into Situation in Belarus

Bratislava, August 12 (TASR) – House Foreign Affairs Committee chair Juraj Blanar (opposition’s Smer-SD) voiced his support on Wednesday for the stance adopted by the EU, which wants to look into the situation in Belarus, TASR learnt on the same day.
Blanar regrets the fact that European institutions didn’t send their representatives to monitor the Belarussian presidential race.

“I support the stance by the EU to look into the situation at hand. It’s a pity that the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly failed to send their election monitors to Belarus, despite the fact that the invitation by the Belarussian side was extended beyond the usual schedule,” Blanar told TASR. He believes that sending the monitoring mission was supposed to be a priority and we could “have had first-hand information by now”.

Blanar condemned the violence that erupted following the announcement of the election results. “What’s important for Belarus right now is to have both sides seek a non-violent form of dialogue,” he added.

On Tuesday (August 11), the EU declared that Sunday’s presidential election in Belarus was neither free nor just.

Long-serving president Alexander Lukashenko was proclaimed the winner by the Central Election Commission with 80.08 percent of votes, with his challenger Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya garnering the support of 10.09 percent. Tsikhanouskaya and other presidential hopefuls have refused to recognise the official results, maintaining that the vote was rigged.

SPPK: If Farmers Aren't Taken Seriously, They Will Be Seen in Streets More Often

If farmers' demands are not taken seriously, they will be seen in the streets more often, Slovak Agriculture and Food Chamber chairman Emil Macho told a news conference held in front of the Parliament's building on Thursday.

PM: Slovakia to Organise Repeated Mass Testing, Two Dozen Districts Exempt

Bratislava, November 2 (TASR) – Slovakia will organise a repeated mass testing for the coronavirus, but districts with positivity rates below 0.7 percent in the testing this past weekend will be exempt from the second round, Prime Minister Igor Matovic (OLaNO) announced after a meeting of the Central Crisis Management

President Supports Civic Collection to Purchase Ammunition for Ukraine

Bratislava, April 19 (TASR) - I support the 'Ammunition for Ukraine' civic collection, President Zuzana Caputova posted on a social network on Friday, adding that she's also proud that many in Slovakia care about the fate of neighbouring Ukraine. "I support this initiative because it's the right thing to do.

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