Slovak politics sends two serious warnings to Prague iROZHLAS
The political development of these days in Slovakia offers an analogy for how politics could develop in the coming years. So: imagine it’s autumn 2023, two years after the elections to the House and the coalition government of Petra Fiala is in disarray. It has failed to cope clearly and effectively with the next waves of the epidemic, nor to help companies and households cope with high energy prices, nor to start reforms, nor to reduce the state’s debt painlessly.
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The Five Coalition is constantly on the verge of disintegration. The most popular party is with the big YES movement of Alena Schillerová, followed by Tomia Okamura’s party, then nothing for a long time – ODS. Early elections and the government of YES with the SPD hang in the air.
Petr Šabata: Slovak politics sends two serious warnings to Prague
Somehow, the development in Slovakia could be translated into Czech realities. Opposition leader Igor Matovic won the election to the National Council two years ago and formed a four-member coalition government.
After the murder of Ján Kuciak and his girlfriend, the company urged change. Above all, the new government was to break what former President Andrej Kiska called a mob state built by Robert Fica.
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Two years later, in February 2022, electoral preferences are again led by Fico’s Smer party, whose leader has become an aggressive populist who is holding demonstrations against vaccinations and government measures and supporting Russia, not NATO, in the crisis around Ukraine.
The other side is Petr Pellegrini’s Voice, who left Smer some time ago but would certainly make a deal with his former boss. And the coalition needed to rule could be supplemented by the Republican movement, which in turn is a breakaway formation from the semi-fascist party of Marian Kotleba.
Resentment, violence, loss of life
Sociologists see this as a great threat to authoritarian development. The next election will not only be about a change of government, but again about the fate of the country.
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What did Igor Matovic’s cabinet do wrong? in the end everything. He faced the epidemic even more chaotically than, for example, the Czech government. The person of the prime minister himself, a successful opposition who was unable to lead the government, is self-centered and vindictive, so he was replaced at the head of the cabinet by his party colleague Eduard Heger.
The coalition finds it difficult to reach an agreement on the necessary anti-crisis steps and resolves disputes through the media. Add to that the high prices of energy and inflation, the uncertain economic future of many families, the inclination of voters to the extreme can be explained, and in Slovakia it also has historical roots.
Czech politics is based on a different long-term voter behavior, so simple analogies would be odd.
But two warnings are coming from Bratislava. The example of three-time Prime Minister Robert Fico shows that some politicians are on their way to power and are willing to use the means if they fear justice. They do not mind violence, a tendency to an epidemic or unnecessary loss of life.
And in response to the extraordinarily increased responsibility of non-extremist politicians and parties, both government and opposition. Not only for the right and quick solution to the concurrence of several very serious crises, but also for the defense of fragile social peace and democratic institutions.
Although it sometimes does not seem so, we are currently much more successful in this key matter than in Slovakia. Yet
The author is the editor-in-chief of Czech Radio Plus
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