SLOVAKIA'S political parties are a big disappointment for sociologist Oľga Gyárfášová.
“All the positive things that happened here have happened despite political parties,” Gyárfášová said during the debate of analysts and experts in the editorial offices of the Sme daily on the election night. Political parties are not institutions that help the country move forward – quite the contrary, Gyárfášová said, adding that positive impulses have come “from other spheres”.
Representatives of the third sector taking part in the debate agree that civil society has significantly revived itself in the past few years.
“It’s been positive that many startups appeared, many clever young people, a whole new scene,” said Lenka Surotchak of the Pontis Foundation. This happened because, as Surotchak said “the situation got serious”.
Ján Orlovský of the Open Society Foundation opined that Slovakia completely misses a vision of “where we want to go”. Orlovský would expect a social democratic government to help to the poor and socially excluded their top agenda, but hasn’t seen that happen in the past four years.
“We do not have any social democracy that would be worth [its name],” Orlovský said.
