Ordinary people make for decidedly ordinary politicians. Look at Slovakia

Without politics, there is no predictability and no accountability.

Igor Matovič (OĽaNO)Igor Matovič (OĽaNO) (Source: TASR)

Welcome to your weekly commentary and overview of news from Slovakia. How Slovakia’s government crisis progressed last week. 30 years since Slovakia’s constitution was adopted, many lawyers believe it needs a revamp. For the latest issue of The Slovak Spectator in PDF, please scroll down.

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Why it matters that politicians are politicians

As the latest round of elections approaches, Slovakia is a good example of where the “I am not a politician” type of politics leads once it gets into government. Igor Matovič put it in the very name of his party, and Boris Kollár in his very first campaign appealed to voters with a slogan insisting that they could trust him because he was “not a politician”. Richard Sulík does not reject the “politician” label so ardently, but he represents an alternative version of this fashion: the idea that the state needs to be run like a private company.

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The word ‘politician’ has become a swear word, but it turns out politics is actually needed to nurture lasting coalition agreements and ensure a predictable, trusted and thus functional government. Politics takes hard work, organisation, bottom-up structures, rules that are respected, at least most of the time. Politics cannot be a hobby, a side-hustle, an elevator to society’s most respectable positions that avoids the need for the skills or experience. Politics is a job that you cannot take a holiday from whenever it suits you. If we give up on politics, we abandon the necessary competition of ideas that, admittedly, has its flaws, but is the best way we have found so far to organise the life of a state.

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