Geopolemics.com :: Slovakia

Countries: Slovakia
Posted on Friday, February 26, 2010 - 12:06 PM
	Dzurinda pull-out leaves the way clear for Fico in June The surprise decision by Mikulas Dzurinda, Slovakia's former Prime Minister and main opposition leader, not to stand in the country’s June 12 parliamentary elections leaves the incumbent, Robert Fico, ideally placed to dominate the poll. Mr Dzurinda, a former prime minister and architect of economic reforms that transformed Slovakia, declared on February 1 that he would not run, after Mr Fico, in several news conferences, had accused his centre-right SDKU party of corruption in connection with how the party was financed in the early part of the decade. Robert Fico, Slovakia's prime minister, is well placed to dominate June's election after the leader of the opposition party said he would not run. Mr Dzurinda called his rival’s accusations “monstrous”, but the SDKU has not provided a convincing explanation as to why it received hundreds of thousands of Euros from shell companies registered abroad. The allegations are an enormous embarrassment for the SDKU, which had built its campaign for the elections round accusations that Mr Fico’s populist Smer party, and its small nationalist allies, were embroiled in corruption. “These allegations are quite serious,” said Grigorij Meseznikov, head of the Institute of Public Affairs, a think-tank. “The problem is that Fico is not the best prosecutor because his own party has financing problems as well. It is a confrontation between two sides in which neither one is clean.” Mr Fico is widely expected to win the election, although he is expected to have to take on a coalition partner to form a majority government. His current allies in the nationalist-populist SNS party, and the HZDS, of Vladimir Meciar, who had been Slovakia’s authoritarian leader immediately after independence in 1993, have been a source of constant scandal, and Mr Fico is thought to favour an alliance with one of the less tainted parties now in opposition. Mr Dzurinda ruled Slovakia from 1998 to 2006, bringing in radical economic reforms that pushed Slovakia back into central Europe’s mainstream, and allowed it to join the European Union and NATO in 2004. The reforms included a flat tax of 19 per cent, which made Slovakia an attractive destination for foreign investors, most significantly from the car industry, which turned Slovakia into one of the world’s highest per capita car producers. Mr Fico came to power on a wave of reform fatigue, but in spite of robust promises, he has done little to change the underlying economic structure built by Mr Dzurinda. Those policies allowed Slovakia to join the euro last year, sparing it the worst of the turbulence associated with the global economic crisis. In 2007 Slovakia had the EU’s highest economic growth – 10.4 per cent. The economy contracted last year, but is expected to grow by about 3 per cent in 2010. A new location of US missile shield opposed by Slovakia 2007 was, indeed, a true honeymoon for Mr Fico and a high point of his profile on the world stage. He hosted an important meeting against the early version of the projected US missile shield for Europe in Bratislava. There is a major rumpus going on in European and American politics right now - over the US desire to have an anti-missile system in Central Europe - ostensibly directed at rogue states in the Middle East, notably Iran, and North Korea. It was the brainchild of the Bush Administration in its second term. But the Obama one appeared to back away from it late last year. It made no geopolitical sense as it stood. The Russians offered to host such a system on their own soil, rather nearer the alleged villains, obviously so in the case of North Korea, but also with Iran. The Obama team have given it a new twist. Instead of the Czech Republic and Poland being the venue of the system, it should be Romania, an enthusiastic supporter of US foreign policy. President Trajan Basescu announced as such on February 4, sparking off a furious Russian reaction a week later. As it so happens, Slovakia has spearheaded opposition to the idea from the start, wherever it is located. The CEE Social Democrats united against the US in 2007 Central and East European (CEE) Social Democrats combined to reject US missile shield plans for Europe. As long ago as 2007 they agreed this in mid-September in Bratislava. The Social Democratic parties of Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia rejected then the US plans to position parts for its missile shield in Europe in a common statement. "We are concerned about the decision to deploy the system and are at one with the large majority of our populations in rejecting it," the statement, drafted by Austrian and German Social Democrats, reads. "A decision to station the missiles must not be taken unilaterally or bilaterally, since this is a major issue affecting the security of all of Europe." In January of that year, the United States asked the Czech Republic and Poland to station an X-band radar and 10 interceptor missiles respectively for its missile shield that the US insisted is designed to protect against so-called 'axis of evil' states such as Iran. The countries entered into bilateral talks despite the project's lukewarm reception across Europe and Russia's outright hostility to it. The Central European Social Democratic politicians agreed in their statement that the deployment "has sparked tensions between the US and Russia" and "there is a threat of a new arms race." They also demanded that a debate on the project be held at European Union level. "It is not possible that we sidetrack ... the idea of common European security," said Fico. "And it will be very bad if Europe is divided on this issue as it had been in Iraq's case." Fico's triumph The meeting was seen then as a breakthrough for Fico, a leader of the leftist Smer party. He has been largely ignored by European socialists after forming a ruling coalition with parties led by two rogues of post-communist Slovak politics - former authoritarian premier Vladimir Meciar and nationalist Jan Slota. Neither of them were given a post in the cabinet though and Fico has so far kept them under a tight rein. "I am very pleased by the great progress and stable politics carried out by our Slovak friends," said German SPD leader Kurt Beck. "Their politics stand with the highest European level financially, economically and socially." "I hope any punishment meted out to our party will now end," Fico said. Smer predominant Whatever he is thought of abroad, at home Fico's party is popular. The governing Party Direction - Third Way (Smer) remains the most popular political organization in Slovakia. According to a poll by MVK. Over 30 per cent of respondents would vote for Smer in the next parliamentary election, due this year. This is twice as many as would vote for any other party, whether Dzurinda's Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKU) or the Party of the Hungarian Coalition (SMK), the Slovak National Party (SNS), the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) or the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH). Parties require at least six per cent of the vote to earn seats under the country’s proportional representation system. The Slovak Communist Party (KSS) and the Green Party (SZ) fall below this threshold. Slovak voters renewed their legislative branch in June 2006. Final results placed Smer—led by Robert Fico—as the top party in the European country with 50 seats. In July of that year, Fico officially took over as prime minister, in a coalition encompassing Smer, the SNS and the HZDS. The threat of racist extremism stalks Central Europe Human rights activists and government officials from Central and Eastern European countries have warned that rising far right parties are threatening the stability in several former Communist nations. They discussed the issue at an international meeting in Budapest on February 12th ahead of several key elections in Eastern Europe. Human rights officials and social experts from Central and Eastern European countries said the new wave of attacks on Gypsies, or Roma, as well as Jews and other minority groups by the new extremist parties are threatening the fragile democracies in several Eastern European nations. They said the fast growing strength of far right political extremism and their discrimination activities aimed at national minorities in the region are alarming. Several Roma, including children, have been killed in the past year in violence in Hungary involving firearms, gasoline bombs and hand grenades. There have also been anti-Roma and anti-Jewish incidents in other countries in the region, notably Slovakia. The meeting came as opinion polls in the region show that the far right Movement for a Better Hungary (Jobbik) will likely become a major political force in Hungarian parliamentary elections in April, with unfortunate implications for the elections in Slovakia two months later. It already captured three of 22 seats designated to Hungary in the European Parliament election last year. Jobbik campaigns against what it calls 'Gypsy crime' and its leaders have been linked to anti-Semitic rhetoric by the Hungarian officials and are viewed as intensely Eurosceptic. Since 2007, members of the party's paramilitary wing, the Hungarian Guard, or Magyar Garda, had marched through several Roma villages and settlements in uniforms that resemble those of the Nazi-era. Jobbik's success has been linked to Hungary's continuing economic crisis and widespread disappointment in the current Socialist-backed government. Sociologist Andras Toth of the influential Institute for Political Science of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences told VOA News he fears Jobbik would change the political landscape in Hungary and its success would impact on nearby countries. "I am very concerned, because it is likely that in Hungary the Jobbik, which is the leading far right party, will have at least 10% of the votes in the next election. It might happen that it will be the second biggest party in parliament or the third one," said Toth. "If the economic crisis will go on, unemployment will increase, it might happen that Jobbik will receive even 20% or 30% in 2014. And this is a real concern not only for Hungary but for the whole European project." There are concerns that Jobbik's success will further boost far-right parties in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, where elections will be held later this year. Author Peter Huncik, a former adviser of then Czech President Vaclav Havel, has been involved in the new party Most-Hid (Bridge), which works across ethnic lines to counter extremism in Slovakia and the region. He explains the strength of his party. "About 60-65% of the members [of my party] is from the [ethnic minority] Hungarian society and about 35-40% from the Slovak society," he said. "Which is a very, very important message to the world and the neighbouring countries of Slovakia. The other alternative is a bloody conflict. And who needs this bloody conflict. Yugoslavia was enough for us." Note: To read more, click here

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