If the government doesn’t do it, we, the Slovak society — will

30.04.2024, 06:02 newssky.com.ua

Hryhori Mesezhnikov

Slovakia, my dear country of paradoxes, never gets tired of surprising. Despite Robert Fico’s refusal to help Ukraine with armaments, the Slovaks collected more than two and a half million Euros in a record short time and, in this way, joined the initiative of the Czech government. The Newssky correspondent turned to Hryhori Mesezhnikov, president of the Institute of Public Affairs in Slovakia, for a comment on the situation in the country.

What is the current political situation in the country? What has changed with the election of Pellegrini as president?

In Slovakia, the ruling coalition of national populists, after electing its representative, Petr Pellegrini to the post of president of the country, continues its attempts to consolidate an illiberal model of power. Despite winning the parliamentary elections in September 2023 and the recent presidential election won by the populists by only a small margin, the government behaves as if it has the majority of voters behind it. A purge of law enforcement agencies, changes in laws that form the backbone of the rule of law system, undermining the mechanisms of the separation of powers, as well as a change in the main vector in the state’s foreign policy—all the things that the Slovak authoritarian populists managed to achieve during their half-year rule became the arena of a sharp struggle between them and Slovak democrats.

How does Slovak society react, and does it regret its choice?

Slovak civil society, democratic opposition, and independent media are not going to give up. As a response to the authoritarian intentions of the authorities, Slovak democrats chose military support for Ukraine.

As is known, the government of Robert Fico, after coming to power, refused to supply weapons to Ukraine. He did not join the initiative of the Czech government to collect funds for the purchase of ammunition for Ukraine throughout the world. «If the government does not do it, then we will do it,» said the Slovak civil initiative «Peace to Ukraine,» which managed to collect more than 2.5 million Euros in few days.

I would like to note that our frequent commenter Hryhoriy Mesezhnikov is among the initiators of the collection. Thank you, Slovakia!

Maryna Kovalchuk, deputy editor-in-chief (Central Europe and Canada), and head of the V5 Media project, contributed

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