Yearbook 2011
Slovakia. During the year, Slovakia became an example of how a single coalition party in a member state can stop a major EU process – temporarily. The Liberal Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) said no when the government would decide in the autumn to strengthen the eurozone crisis fund EFSF for assistance to the crisis-hit Greece. SaS leader Richard Sulík explained that it was better to let Greece go bankrupt than that Slovak taxpayers would cover the debts of wealthier countries. Many voters supported Sulík’s line and felt that little Slovakia, the second poorest in the euro zone, had no obligation to sacrifice for Greece’s mismanaged economy. Slovakia had gone through a hard time of material sacrifice before reaching the EU and the euro. Visit ABBREVIATIONFINDER for the acronym of SVK that stands for the country of Slovakia.
According to Countryaah official site, Prime Minister Iveta Radičová did not want Slovakia to dump the big European project with the crisis fund, and she made the vote in Parliament a vote of confidence for the government. Radičová lost, and the government resigned, but the Social Democratic opposition promised to support the Prime Minister’s European policy against the demand that she vote in parliamentary elections. In a second parliamentary vote, Slovakia, as the last euro area member, was thus able to approve a strengthening of the crisis fund, while Radičová announced new elections until March 2012.
Opinion polls showed that most voters were opposed to Slovakia contributing to the Eurozone crisis fund at all. The average pension in Slovakia is less than a third of the average Greek pension, and SaS leader Richard Sulík said it was difficult to explain why Slovak pensioners would take austerity to help Greek pensioners or Italian MPs, who have the highest salaries among European Parliamentarians.
Slovakia has also undergone austerity with lower public wages and increased taxes, and in April the country had the third highest unemployment rate in the euro zone, about 14%, after Spain and Ireland.
At the end of the year, more than 1,000 doctors resigned in protest of low wages. In December, however, the doctors agreed with the state employer on salary increases and they returned to work.
SLOVAKIA is the largest of the five regions that make up Czechoslovakia, with an area of 48,936 sq km. slightly higher than the third part of the state (34.8%). Instead the population is only 22.6% of the total, so that the density (68 residents per sq. Km.) Is considerably lower than the average (104). From a geographical point of view, Slovakia is far from corresponding to a natural region, since it includes only a part of the Carpathians and includes vast strips of the Hungarian plain; on the other hand, even from the ethnic side it does not constitute a homogeneous whole, given that numerous Hungarians live in the plains and there are groups of Germans, especially next to the ancient mines or in the major cities. Nevertheless, such a unitary character comes from the long Hungarian domination which lasted for 900 years and from the massive and monotonous structure of the highest part of the chain which prevented the construction of major roads and delayed the economic evolution of the country. Slovakia also has the task of orienting the Czechoslovakian state towards Danubian Europe, in order to balance the direction of Bohemia, facing the Elbe towards Germany.
In N. the border (except for two small adjustments in favor of Poland), still traces the border that divided the kingdoms of Hungary and Poland for centuries and generally follows the watershed between Vistula and Danube, which also divides Poles from Slovaks. In Slovakia, on the other hand, the line was drawn mainly on the basis of defensive criteria. Left to Slovakia, Bratislava with its countryside, the border first follows (for 170 km.) The Danube, then leaves it to lean on the Ipel ‘, while in the following section up to Cop the line, with a general ENE course, is of the all artificial and cuts without regard to rivers and hills, leaving the vineyards of Tokay and the mines of Salgotarjan to Hungary and instead including in Slovakia the important railway junction of Cop. Towards the W the Morava first, then the Carpazî Bianchi,
In the part of Carpathian chain (v. CARPAZI) which belongs to Slovakia, several massifs can be distinguished which generally have a west-east orientation and present considerable access difficulties. Starting from the Jablunkov pass (m. 551) we first find the western Beskids (m. 1725, Babia Góra); towards the east the bare and majestic peaks of the High Tatras follow (Vysoké Tatry: Gerlachovka, 2663 m; Lomnica, 2634 m) made attractive by numerous lakes of glacial origin (among others the lake Štrba). To the east of the Poprad spring basin (which sends the waters to the Vistula) the Beskids lower themselves and allow an easy passage, in an area that has nevertheless remained semi-deserted. At the Dukla Pass the SW Carpazî end. and the Carpazî Selvosi begin, which then increase in height outside the Czechoslovakian territory. Towards Slovakia the valleys of Váh and Hornád separate the Highs from the Little Tatras (Nizké Tatry: Ďumbier m. 2045), formed of sandstone and mainly wooded, while further to the South. still, separated by the valley of the Hron, but united instead to the east by the Králova hola (d.1943), stretches for over 100 km. the paleozoic relief of the Ore Mountains of Slovakia (Stolica, d. 1481), known for a long time for its gold, silver and copper mines, now largely exhausted. These mountains, much demolished, have a less savage aspect; further to Slovakia there is a vast karst region, while to the east the Prešov Mountains are due to volcanic activity, of which some manifestations still remain (Herlany geyser). The Hron then communicates with the Váh through the Turiec valley between the Small and Great Tatras. The rivers flowing down from the Carpazî (Váh, Nitra, Hron, Ipel ‘, Hornád, Torysa) before reaching the Danube they cross a stretch of the Hungarian high plain, here and there interrupted by fractures that have given rise to mineral springs. Near Bratislava the Danube divides into three branches and leaves the large island of Žitný, rich in crops, to Slovakia.
Located very far from the sea, limited to N. by a high chain of mountains and to Slovakia by a vast plain, covered by large forests, Slovakia has a rather cold climate, with averages of −1 ° to −3 ° in January and 19 ° to 21 ° in July, which lower somewhat in the higher areas, especially where the influence of the northerly winds arrives. In correspondence, the upper limit of the wood rarely exceeds 1500 m .; prevailing essences are beech and pine at the top, oak at the bottom and steppe formations in the plain.