"Viribus Unitis" artwork by Matúš Maťátko (2019). (source: M. M./The Slovak Spectator)
You can read the opinion in Slovak here.
Since the 2023 parliamentary elections, the Czech media have been paying increased attention to developments in Slovakia. It’s understandable, and for a small country on the edge of interest, it’d be almost pleasant if a disturbing moment didn’t appear in the depth of part of the Czech view of our situation.
It is striking to observe how, even in an educated Czech environment, clichés and prejudices are repeated, on the basis of which almost all Czech analyses of Slovakia end with the realisation that Slovak men and women cannot act otherwise. They’re destined for their failures by historical development because they never existed, they were always only Upper Hungary (the northern part of the Kingdom of Hungary, ed.), to which they’re gradually returning thanks to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s influence.
How could Slovak people help Ukraine when they last sent an army to fight alongside Adolf Hitler and, of course, in harmony with the depressing argumentation of selected domestic authors, whatever Slovak people do, they’ll only return to the “arms of the Russians”, because Slovakia, more than any other European country, is determined by its historical reflections.
