Last Friday, I was sitting on the terrace of the cafe of the Slovakian parliament talking to an opposition MP about the government’s assault on independent media. The previous afternoon a law had been passed that puts the public broadcaster, RTVS, under the direct control of the Ministry of Culture.
“It’s part of a cycle. That’s what’s so scary,” Dana Kleinert of Progressive Slovakia told me, pointing also to the abolition of a special prosecutor’s office looking at political corruption and plans to curb public protests. “How far can they go? The answer is as far as they want.” She also noted the withdrawal of funding for LGBTQ+ groups, and the closure of a museum considered to be “putting the future of children in Slovakia in jeopardy”.
As Kleinert was speaking, a striking woman in a pink and white dress, with blond wavy hair and outsized sunglasses sat down at a nearby table. She was accompanied by a man in denim shorts. This was the culture minister herself, Martina Šimkovičová, and her friend, Peter Kotlár, the government’s “special envoy” investigating the previous administration’s response to Covid-19.
They are both members of the far-right Slovak National party. Šimkovičová was an anchor at the TV station Markíza until she was fired in 2015 for mocking Syrian refugees on her Facebook page. She used the notoriety to establish herself as a star of xenophobic, anti-vax, homophobic and pro-Russian social media. She also helped to launch an ultra-nationalist internet TV station called Slovan.
Since the election of Robert Fico as prime minister last year, Slovakia has undertaken a journey towards authoritarianism now familiar in Europe. While adhering to the formalities of membership of Nato and the EU, it has transformed policy away from supporting Ukraine and towards Russia.
The return of the veteran bruiser immediately increased tension in a deeply divided country; his narrow escape from death in an assassination attempt on 15 May has plunged it into a dangerous spiral. Fico and his allies have used the turmoil to mount an assault on all checks on their power, blaming the liberal opposition for the attempt on his life.
Both the government and medical authorities have been sparing in the provision of information about the circumstances of Fico’s shooting and the state of his health, giving rise to a series of claims, counterclaims and curious theories about what really happened. “We’re not buying the official versions,” one opposition figure told me. “We don’t know what’s going on. But nobody wants to air their doubts in public.”
The alleged shooter, Juraj Cintula, had attacked the government in a series of posts but his politics seem to be a strange mix of far left and far right. He was known to be close to a paramilitary network called Slovenskí Branci (Slovakian Conscripts), which according to some investigations has links to Russian special forces.
Shortly before this month’s European elections, Fico broadcast a short video message in which he said he “forgave” the accused. He lay the blame on the opposition for its “aggressive and hateful politics”, adding: “It was only a matter of time before a tragedy would occur.” Fico had, shortly after taking office, denounced some news organisations as “enemies”.
Several journalists and opposition figures I met last week said they feared for their safety. They remember all too well the murder in 2018 of Jan Kuciak, a well known investigative reporter, and his fiancee, by contract killers. When I visited Dennik N, one of the main liberal newspapers to be denounced, I was told that security had been stepped up for its key reporters. Other critical media outlets have taken similar action.
Taking a leaf out of Vladimir Putin’s book, Fico is using parliamentary procedure to clamp down on critical voices. RTVS will now come under a board of nine people, five of whom will be chosen by parliament, where Fico has a majority, and four will be directly chosen by Šimkovičová. Justifying the move, the culture minister said the broadcaster had been guilty of “political activism”, insisting that the new oversight board would “correct a lack of objectivity”. After I was interviewed by RTVS last week for a discussion programme called European Cafe, I asked the presenter and the crew whether they would stay. They said they felt embattled but would take each day as it came, hoping they would not have to operate under direct censorship.
The commercial television station, Markíza, which has a bigger audience and is owned by one of the Czech Republic’s largest companies, the PPF group, has considerable business interests in Slovakia and the station’s management already appears to be doing Fico’s bidding. Michal Kovačič, the host of a popular Sunday politics show, was recently removed after accusing management on air of the “Orbánisation” of media.
On the surface, life appears little changed. Bratislava is packed with locals and tourists enjoying the bars and restaurants in the midsummer heat. However, below the surface, the sense of anxiety is increasing. Some conversations are taking place in hushed tones.
Some of those wielding power could only be described as extreme. Šimkovičová’s friend Kotlar, perhaps the country’s best known anti-vaxxer, recently ensured that Slovakia was the only country not to sign up to new international health regulations at a recent meeting of the World Health Organization. During the pandemic, Kotlar campaigned against vaccines and called Covid-19 a “biological weapon”.
Some are clinging to the recent European elections as a crumb of comfort; the main opposition party, Progressive Slovakia, emerged as the largest party, taking six of the country’s 15 seats.
It is too early to tell whether this was a blip or a sign that Fico will not have it all his own way when he returns after his convalescence at the end of the summer – assuming his recuperation goes to plan. His coalition, including a supposedly more moderate party, Hlas, and the far-right Slovak National party, has been impressively united. Its members know this is their moment to strike, they may never have such a good opportunity to dismantle liberal democracy and turn this small central European nation towards the politics of Hungary and closer to Russia too.
John Kampfner is the author of In Search of Berlin, Blair’s Wars and Why the Germans Do It Better
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