In the parliamentary elections in Slovakia at the end of September, there are signs of a victory for the pro-Russian and authoritarian forces. The electoral system could help them, political scientists warn.
The 2016 elections were a wake-up call in Slovakia. For the first time, the right-wing extremist party “Our Slovakia” entered parliament and immediately won 14 of the 150 seats. The head of the party is Marian Kotleba, a man with radical convictions: he appears in uniforms inspired by the Nazi era and rabble-rouses anti-Semitic slogans.
However, Kotleba’s supporters are no longer the only ones vying for votes with populist scams. An even more radical split under the name “Republika” is hoping for a double-digit result in the forthcoming elections. And the experienced political matador Robert Fico is also aiming more and more openly at the darkest side of people.
When it became clear after the contract killing of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée in 2018 how entangled Slovakian politics is with mafia-like groups, Fico had to resign as prime minister. But five years later, little is left of the hopeful restart of the country.
Fico will probably celebrate his political comeback in the coming elections – albeit with a new adjustment. The former prime minister made a conscious decision to use radical rhetoric to address dissatisfied voters, says sociologist Miloslav Bahna from the Slovak Academy of Sciences.
Desire for closeness to Russia
Fico’s Smer-SD party has social democracy in its name. If you listen to the speeches of the leadership, you have to describe them as right-wing populist and pro-Russian. “War and fascism have always come from the West, freedom and peace from the East,” Ľuboš Blaha calls out to a cheering audience. The 43-year-old studied political science and vice-chairman of the Smer-SD is hoping for a ministerial post in the new cabinet. He calls for the liberation of Slovakia from “Euro-American occupation” and “fascism in rainbow colors”.
Such slogans go down well in Slovakia. According to a survey by the daily Denník N, 30 percent of Slovakians would not mind if their country were to come back under the Russian sphere of influence. The times of occupation after 1968 were the years in Slovakia when the backward agrarian country was relatively successfully transformed into an industrial state.
That’s why many Slovaks look mildly at the past – and that’s the humus on which Russian disinformation can thrive in Slovakia like in almost no other country in the EU, say the journalists at “Denník N”. In addition, after the disappointment with the failure of democratic politicians in recent years, many Slovaks wish for a strong, autocratic ruler again.
centralization qua electoral system
The electoral system, which provides for only one constituency for the entire country, accommodates these wishes: Although the single constituency guarantees every vote in the country the same weight, it also promotes the tendency of the parties to focus the election campaign on the top candidate. He then fights nationwide as a leader with pointed rhetoric for attention and voters.
Darina Malová, a professor of political science at the Comenius University in Bratislava, complains that this leads to further centralization and further weakens the already weak anchoring of the parties in the regions. Politics, as many Slovaks experienced, is made by “those up there” in distant Bratislava.
Regional problems and differences, which also exist in Slovakia, do not play a role in the nationwide single constituency. Malová believes that this strengthens the tendency of voters to protest and to take more radical positions. It is also the Slovakian electoral system that promotes the chances of populist parties.
The liberal leader resigns
President Zuzana Čaputová is increasingly on the defensive. As the country’s liberal leader and anchor of Slovakia’s western orientation, she can only hope that there will be no clear victory for the populists in the elections. “These elections are a vote on whether Slovaks want to preserve their democracy and pro-Western orientation,” says Čaputová in an interview with ARD Studio Prague.
But she herself is proof that growing populism is already eroding Slovakia: in March 2019, the civil rights activist, surprising many, was elected head of state in a direct election. As the country’s most popular politician, she is almost certain of a second term. In June, however, she gave up her candidacy. She lacks the strength to do so, she explained. The hostilities, also towards her family, would have left too deep a mark.
Many also see in Čaputová’s withdrawal a victory of lack of culture over decency – a victory that must not be repeated in the elections on the last weekend in September.