Free meals for schoolchildren desired by leading party

Smer-SD, the largest coalition party, wishes to introduce free meals for children in their final year of nursery school and for all children at primary schools. This was announced by Smer-SD chairman Robert Fico at a press conference in Bratislava on Tuesday. According to Fico, the children concerned should each receive €1.2 per day from the state, at a cost to taxpayers of €106 million. Prime Minister and Smer-SD Vice-chair Peter Pellegrini stressed the measure will be simple in its functionality, with direct payments being paid by the state directly to town and city budgets. As for other planned social measures, Smer-SD wants to double the number of patients entitled to spa treatments each year, allocating an additional €10 million for this measure. The party also announced its desire to double the amount of so-called Christmas bonuses for pensioners in 2019; thus they would receive a bonus payout of €170 at Christmas time, costing €75 million.