The Guardian View on Slovakia’s Election: An Ominous Signal from Central Europe

THE GUARDIAN – EDITORIAL: Victory for a Putin-friendly populist has given Viktor Orbán an ally and the rest of Europe a problem

Mr Fico’s triumph means an enlarged dissident core in central Europe.’ Photograph: Vladimír Šimíček/AFP/Getty Images
Elections in Slovakia, a country of 5.5 million people on the eurozone’s eastern flank, do not normally generate global headlines. But these are not normal times. Amid fears of growing cracks in western unity over Russia’s war in Ukraine, the victory over the weekend of a pro-Putin populist committed to ending military aid to Kyiv sent an ominous signal.

“Slovakia has bigger problems than Ukraine,” said Robert Fico, in the wake of a win that will have been a cause for satisfaction in the Kremlin. His Smer-SD party, which ran a campaign targeting irregular migrants, LGBTQ+ rights and support for Kyiv, will now seek to lead a coalition government. For Mr Fico, who has been the subject of corruption allegations, and was ousted as leader in 2018 in toxic circumstances, this was a remarkable comeback. For most of Europe, it is one with worrying implications on a number of levels. » | Editorial | Tuesday, October 3, 2023

Unease in the West as Slovakia Appears Set to Join the Putin Sympathizers

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The front-runner in the parliamentary vote has pledged “not to send a single cartridge” to neighboring Ukraine, a sign of the flagging European support for a victim of Russian aggression.

Robert Fico, center, in Bratislava, Slovakia, on Sunday, has said he will “not send a single cartridge” of ammunition to Ukraine. | Martin Divisek/EPA, via Shutterstock
The victory of Robert Fico, a former prime minister who took a pro-Russian campaign stance, in Slovakia’s parliamentary elections is a further sign of eroding support for Ukraine in the West as the war drags on and the front line remains largely static.

Slovakia is a small country with historical Russian sympathies, and the nature of the coalition government Mr. Fico will seek to form is unclear. He may lean more toward pragmatism, as Italy’s far-right prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, has done since her election last year. Still, the shift in Slovakia is stark: It was the first country to deliver fighter jets to Ukraine.

The election results come as disquiet over the billions of dollars in military aid that the West has provided to Ukraine over the past 19 months has grown more acute in the United States and the European Union, with demands increasing for the money to go to domestic priorities instead. » | Roger Cohen, Reporting from Paris | Sunday, October 1, 2023

Slovakia Bars Islam from Becoming State Religion by Tightening Church Laws

'We must do everything we can so that no mosque is built in the future'
THE INDEPENDENT: The government in Slovakia has approved a law effectively preventing Islam being registered as a state religion for a number of years.

The bill was proposed by the Slovak National Party (SNS), and requires a religion to have at least 50,000 followers before it qualifies for state subsidies.

According to the most recent census, there are currently around 2,000 Muslim people living in Slovakia out of a population of 5.4million, and there are no registered mosques. Read on and comment » | Gabriel Samuels | Thursday, December 1, 2016

'We Are Monitoring Every Muslim' After Paris Attacks, Claims Slovakian PM

Mr Fico has said there are no mosques in Slovakia
so Muslims 'would not fit in'

THE INDEPENDENT: Slovakia has been opposed to accepting more refugees under the EU system

The Slovakian Prime Minister has claimed his country is “monitoring every Muslim” in the wake of the attacks in the French capital on Friday.

Roberto Fico, 51, who is running for re-election in March, said recent events in France served to underline fears about accepting refugees and Muslim communities’ integration into European communities. » | Rose Troup Buchanan | Tuesday, November 17, 2015

EU in Crisis as Slovakia Threatens to Leave over Controversial Refugee Quota

Mr Fico has blasted the quotas in the past

EXPRESS: SLOVAKIA'S prime minister has threatened to leave the European Union over quotas to accept refugees fleeing war-torn countries.

Robert Fico warned that his country will head for the exit if the EU fails to impose a policy to deal with the influx of refugees entering Europe.

The EU is currently confused on how to deal with the record numbers of refugees, with policy makers left undecided on how to best tackle the situation.

The fed-up prime minister claimed he is ready to propose "a discharge of his country from the European Union" if they are forced to keep taking refugees from the Middle east [sic]. » | Jake Burman | Friday, October 9, 2015

Slovakia Refuses to Accept Muslim Migrants

THE TELEGRAPH: Country will refuse entry to Muslims among quota of 200 migrants, on grounds that country has "no mosques", as German mayor threatens to seize private homes to house asylum seekers

Slovakia has said it will not accept any Muslims under an EU scheme to share migrants more evenly between member states.

“We want to help Europe with the migration issue. We could take 800 Muslims but we don't have any mosques in Slovakia so how can Muslims be integrated if they are not going to like it here?” Ivan Metik, an interior ministry spokesman, said.

Slovakia is to host 200 migrants under an EU plan to redistribute 40,000 away from Italy and Greece, which are overwhelmed with the numbers arriving across the Mediterranean.

The Slovakian government said it plans to ask the migrants their religion on arrival.

The European Commission expressed its displeasure at the Slovakian plans. “We act here in the spirit of the treaty, which prevents any form of discrimination,” Annika Breidthardt, a spokesman, said.

While it is legal to prioritise Christians who are at extra risk of persecution because of their religion, turning away Muslims because there are no mosques would be discriminatory and of dubious legality, according to one EU source. » | Matthew Holehouse, Brussels, and Justin Huggler, Berlin | Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Patriotism by Decree in Slovakia
TIME: As nationalistic laws go, the one just passed in Slovakia seems rather tame on the surface. Earlier this month, the Slovak parliament approved a "patriotic act" mandating that every school play the Slovak national anthem on Mondays and that each classroom display a set of state symbols: the flag, the coat of arms, the lyrics to the anthem and the constitution's preamble. However innocuous this all may appear to be, though, Slovaks are outraged that the government is forcing them, by law, to be more patriotic.

The legislation was sponsored by the Slovak National Party, an ultra-nationalist outfit whose controversial leader, Jan Slota, is known for his xenophobic slurs, which are often aimed at the country's ethnic Hungarians. But Slota maintains that he doesn't just want to instill more patriotism among the Hungarian minority —he wants Slovaks to have more pride in their country, too. (Never mind the fact that his own knowledge of the anthem proved spotty in an interview last week when he confused some of the words and got the author wrong.) "The children's relationship to their nation, to their homeland is not on a decent level," Slota tells TIME. "In America, the schoolchildren parade into a schoolyard, the flag is drawn, the anthem is sung and everyone holds hand over heart." >>> Katerina Zachovalova, Bratislava | Thursday, March 18, 2010

Slowakei macht "Heimatliebe" zur gesetzlichen Pflicht
DIE PRESSE: Das "Gesetz zur Unterstützung der Heimatliebe" soll den slowakischen Patriotismus fördern. Politische Sitzungen und nationale Sportveranstaltungen müssen etwa künftig mit der Hymne beginnen.

Die Slowakei hat "Heimatliebe" zur gesetzlich vorgeschriebenen Pflicht gemacht. Das "Gesetz zur Unterstützung der Heimatliebe" soll in der Bevölkerung Patriotismus und Identifikation mit dem eigenen Staat fördern. Dennoch stieß das vom Parlament verabschiedete Gesetz am Mittwoch auf Kritik von Medien und Opposition. 



Das Gesetz, das am 1. April in Kraft tritt, schreibt vor, dass künftig alle Sitzungen von Parlamenten und Regierungen vom nationalen Abgeordnetenhaus bis hin zu kleinsten Gemeindevertretungen und sogar öffentlichen Bürgerversammlungen mit dem Absingen der Nationalhymne beginnen sollen. Auch alle von nationalen Verbänden organisierten Sportveranstaltungen müssen mit der Hymne beginnen. >>> APA | Donnerstag, 04. März 2010

Queen to Meet ‘Britain’s Schindler’ in Second Stage of Tour [of the Former Yugoslavia]
Photo of Nicholas Winton, "Britain’s Schindler", courtesy of The Telegraph
THE TELEGRAPH: The Queen is to meet a man known as "Britain's Schindler" because of his work saving Jews from the Nazis as she continues her tour of the former Yugoslavia.

The monarch will meet Sir Nicholas Winton, 99, as she travels to the Slovakian capital Bratislava.

The Nobel Peace Prize nominee rescued around 670 Jewish Czech children in the run up to the Second World War.

In 1938, Winton, then a young stockbroker, cancelled a skiing holiday to Switzerland and went instead to Czechoslovakia on a friend's recommendation.

There he found camps full of Jewish refugees who had fled Nazi-occupied Sudetenland, and set about trying to help them.

He transported 669 youngsters to Britain before World War II broke out and, without his intervention they would almost certainly have died. >>> By Charlotte Bailey | October 23, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Dust Jacket Hardcover, direct from the publishers (UK) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback, direct from the publishers (UK) >>>

Saying ‘No’ to Kosovo Independence
BBC: Four EU countries, Romania, Cyprus, Slovakia and Spain, have refused to recognise Kosovo as an independent state.

Here, Euro MPs from all four countries explain their concerns about Kosovo's step forward. Saying 'No' to Kosovo Independence >>>

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)