Slovakia will face early elections in autumn.
The months-long crisis in Slovak politics should concern us. Its process, the form of its solution and, above all, its consequences can be either an inspiration or a deterrent for the Czechs. Not both. The second half of last year found rightly confused Slovaks as spectators of a somewhat opaque game at the highest political levels. The OLaNO and SaS parties played a game that included, among others, the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Finance in terms of staffing. The National Council of the Slovak Republic changed the regular elections, scheduled for the beginning of 2024, to early elections, setting their date for 30 September 2023, although President Zuzana Čaputová had originally demanded a date in the first half of the year. And it will be an absolutely crucial election. If we rather selfishly see Slovakia as a buffer protecting us from Eastern totalitarianism, we should wish for a victory for democratic forces. It is not very important whether the functional format of the fading V4 can be preserved, what matters is whether the Slovaks will lean towards Orbán's Hungary or Pavlov's Czech Republic after the elections. A strong card in the argumentative battle that Slovak political actors are already waging is the way in which the more than year-long Russian aggression is understood and translated into the domestic political narrative. Here, so far, the circumstances are more in favour of Fico's Smer-SD. Polls reveal that a minority of Slovaks consider the victory of Ukraine to be the right solution to the conflict. The attitude of the Slovak majority towards the issue of migration is also extremely conservative. The dynamism and turmoil in Slovak politics is evidenced by the current developments in the form of the departure of Prime Minister Heger from the ruling OLaNO party. All is seemingly calm. Gradually, however, the head of the OLaNO party, Igor Matovič, is losing other strong figures - the ministers of defence, environment and economy. Slovakia will experience a difficult six months, in which either the tendency of our eastern neighbour to lean towards populism and nationalism will be confirmed, or democratic parties and groups will succeed in convincing citizens of the sense of building values in the longer term, even at the cost of temporary discomfort and hardship. It is in our best interest that the Slovaks continue to be close partners, friends and allies of the Czech Republic.
photo: Eduard Heger, Slovak Prime Minister