The Slovak government yesterday extended the state of emergency that had been in place since October 1st. It would have expired on Friday, but is now valid for another 40 days until April 28th. The state of emergency allows the authorities, among other things, the forced recruitment and relocation of health workers and the imposition of curfews.
The opposition accused the four-party coalition of the populist-conservative Prime Minister Igor Matovic of abusing the emergency rules to ban protests.
At the same time, the government decided to ban tourist travel abroad, thereby tightening the existing exit restrictions. The cabinet responded to criticism of the previous emergency rules. Although these severely restricted freedom of movement domestically in order to slow down the spread of the coronavirus, they did allow vacations abroad.
