Slovakia, a political thriller with a dramatic purpose international

The recent political history of Slovakia also includes that of its Prime Minister Robert Fico. And it has been marked by two firings: one that forced him to resign in 2018 and one that nearly killed him this week. The first assassination attempt in Europe in decades…

The recent political history of Slovakia also includes that of its Prime Minister Robert Fico. And it has been marked by two firings: one that forced him to resign in 2018 and one that nearly killed him this week. The first assassination attempt in Europe in decades has shocked the union at a time of high instability. It is also a warning that the deep-rooted polarization and rhetorical aggression in Slovakia could turn into actual violence.

On February 26, 2018, Jan Kuciak – a reporter who was investigating links between the Italian ‘Ndrangheta and senior government officials – and his girlfriend were murdered. Slovak society rose up against the atmosphere of impunity and corruption prevailing in the country and the Prime Minister was forced to resign. Five years later, in October 2023, a radical version of Fico returned to power with a vengeance after an extremely toxic campaign that deepened divisions. Last Wednesday, a 71-year-old man shot Fico five times during a protest against measures promoted in the first six months of Fico’s fourth term, according to the government.

Polarization is not just a phenomenon in Slovakia. However, Michael Wasecka, director of the Bratislava Institute of Politics think tank, believes it runs even deeper in this “artificial” country, where “there is no elementary consensus even on history.” This region of 5.4 million inhabitants, which Waseca defines as the confluence of three civilizations – Western Europe, Eastern Europe and the Balkans – offers contexts that can fuel multiple seasons. thriller Political. The beginning would be in the nineties, when the country emerged from communist rule as an independent state. velvet divorce Which disintegrated Czechoslovakia in 1993. The protagonist of these chapters will be former Prime Minister Vladimir Mekiyaar, a former amateur boxer who ruled the country between 1990 and 1998.

That decade of privatization was filled with mafia practices, including bribery and murder. The newspaper’s archives include bizarre incidents, such as the 1995 kidnapping of Michal Kovač, son of the then-president, Mečiar’s staunch enemy, only to leave him drunk in Austria and have him arrested as he was searched. There was a warrant. The version that remains in the memory is that he was kidnapped by the secret services, who in turn sub-contracted the murder of a key Mafia witness. “This is where the problems started. from those people wild east He remained among us,” explains Vaseka in his office in the historic center of the capital.

“Slovakia has been polarized since the birth of the state,” says Grigorije Mesznikov, a political scientist and president of the Institute of Public Affairs think tank. The divisions he develops are marked by different attitudes toward power. On one side were the national populists of Messiaer – and now Fico – “who almost automatically want to retain power.” On the other hand, the so-called liberal democratic forces in the region. “It is easy to know which block each party is in when it is formed,” he said.

As Juraj Marusiak, director of the Institute of Political Sciences of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, recalled, the privatization of the 1990s also generated conflict between winners and losers of the economic transformation. A foreign policy marked by isolation due to Maciar’s authoritarianism also faced Slovaks at the end of that decade.

Join EL PAÍS to follow all the news and read without limits.

subscribe

bigotry

When Fico won his first mandate in 2006, he achieved political prominence in the country. Gradually, the leader who attracted communist vote after vote began to seek support from the right in the gap left by Maciar. After being in the opposition for a few years (between 2010 and 2012), he returned to lead the government uninterrupted until 2018. According to Vaseka, he continues to move to the right “until he jumps to the extreme right.”

When he resigns after the murder of a journalist and his girlfriend, everyone considers him bankrupt. The Prime Minister and his team feel aggrieved and have been treated unfairly. His party, Smr, is at the bottom of the polls. Journalist Eva Mihokova, who directs the magazine The Slovak Foreign Policy Association, after working in various media, remembers well how their sources in the FICO formation told them that their strategy was to become radical in order to expand the electorate.

In 2020, a coalition led by centre-right populist Igor Matovic, who leads the OĽaNO party (Ordinary People and Independent Personalities), and later Edward Heger, who comes with a promise to clean up corruption, governed. Are. The legislature, which was not completed, was marked by the Covid pandemic, chaos and internal tensions.

The flawed fight against corruption led to the conviction and indictment of dozens of people linked to Smr, including judges, police officers, businessmen and senior officials. Even Fico was accused of collaborating with a criminal organization and the party’s number two, the current Defense Minister, Robert Kalinek, was detained for three weeks, although a prosecutor dropped charges against both. Were removed.

Academic Marusiak explains, “Fico realized that in the past, Smar had not focused on governance.” After a comeback marked by a desire for revenge in 2023, he, inspired by leaders such as Hungary’s ultra-conservative Viktor Orban, began taking measures to control the police, judiciary, NGOs and media. “For the most liberal part of society, this represents an attack on political freedoms and the beginning of the country’s authoritarian transformation,” he explained.

Russian influence and disinformation

“The war in Ukraine has become a more important element of division in politics,” Jozef Zagrapan, a sociologist at the Slovak Academy of Sciences, explains in his office in a 1920s building, adding that the government is more open to Moscow than Kiev. Meyeznikov points to “elements of toxicity encouraged by Russian external networks, especially in the last eight years” as responsible for the social confrontation. Disinformation and conspiracy theories find fertile ground in Slovakia, where half the population believes in them, according to one study. think tank GlobeSec, which also shows that 38% are in favor of autocratic leadership. The divide between rural areas and urban areas in the country is also very clear.

As journalist Mihokova explains over coffee, “provoking and dehumanizing the opponent” runs through Slovak political culture. “They work with emotions and any psychologist can explain that negative emotions like fear or hatred work better.” Obscenity and insult are the trend these days.

At a rally, Lubos Blaha, a senior Smar official who is now vice-speaker of parliament, encouraged the crowd to fulfill the term. curve (prostitute) A phrase referring to the president, liberal Zuzana Caputova. Fico has referred to them as “American agents” and “rats”, the same words he uses to talk about other politicians as well as “pigs”. He regularly refers to journalists as “enemies” after disparaging them by calling them “anti-Slovak prostitutes”. In the legislative campaign, former Prime Ministers Matovic and Kalinac came to blows, although journalist Mihokova attributes this episode to the former Prime Minister’s provocative personality, not the country’s character.

The opposition regularly calls demonstrations to protest the authoritarian moves of the Fico government. Media works to control power. But Mihokova assures, never with the aggressive language of Smr and other far-right parties. After the attempt to assassinate Fico – which remains serious, but stable, as Kalinak reported this Saturday – the most radical elements of the government insist on blaming political opponents and the press. Even the deputy prime minister and defense chief, who represent the most pragmatic wing, say he should apologize for creating the environment that led to the attack on 71-year-old Juraj Scintula, who was convicted this Saturday. After agreeing, he was sent to provisional jail. In front of the judge.

The country is going through delicate times, but Mihokova emphasizes that it is a good sign that the road is calm. This Saturday, the only crowds in Bratislava were groups of tourists who followed guides to tour the castle and the old town. The journalist hopes other countries will take notice: “This is the result of turning very aggressive words into action.”

Filmmaker Lukasz T, 36, who hides his last name, sees Fico’s assassination attempt as part of “an absurd and tragic movie script”. For them, the hatred that led to the murder of two people in an LGTBI bar in Bratislava in 2022 is similar to the one that motivated Syntula to shoot the Prime Minister. The man, before walking off amid the rain that drenches the capital, expresses a question that is widely shared these days: Will Feco change after the assassination attempt? “I’m very curious. It’s like the end of a season. He has contributed to fostering hatred and revenge. Has he learned from his mistakes?

Follow all international information Facebook And xor in our weekly newspaper,