By the time the summer break ends, the ruling parties will no longer be bound by their coalition agreement and, despite the fact that the official election campaign is supposed to start only a couple of weeks before next year’s election, campaigning will start at full volume.
The 2020 parliamentary election will most likely take place around the end of February, coinciding with the second anniversary of the Kuciak and Kušnírová murders. Given that this will be the first general election since that awful event changed Slovakia, we can expect an unprecedented campaign. This summer we have learned some things that suggest anyone following Slovak current affairs will need a strong stomach over the next six months.
The most frequently heard name in this campaign will not belong to a politician. Decades of “hard work” have elevated Marian Kočner to a main element in the campaign, but as object rather than subject. The leaked decoded messages that he exchanged with Alena Zsuzsová, his hardworking associate who, according to the police, was behind the planning of several murders, including that of Ján Kuciak, suggest he was preparing to enter the political arena rather than just pull strings from offstage. But as things stand six months before the election, Kočner will most likely vote from prison.
About a phone
