NO NEED to worry, Richard Sulík is planning to translate his pamphlet (brožúra) ‘Bailout Mechanism – A Road to Socialism’ into English. Anyone interested in the speaker of parliament’s opinion on the union’s solution to the continent’s debt crisis can therefore read his tract without worrying that anything is being lost in translation. Perhaps it won’t tell the reader much new, but there are at least three ways in which the work is likely to make history.
First, it will certainly hold an honorary place in the Sulík family chronicle. Thanks to his reluctance to support the EU plan he has gained international notoriety. The Guardian, The Financial Times, a number of German media, you name it. Certainly, his stubborn stance has the potential to end his political career, or take it to new heights.
The pamphlet could also mark one of the most important chapters in the story of the current coalition. The government has found itself on the brink of collapse numerous times – there was the election of the general prosecutor, the tax office scandal, the dispute over dual citizenship. In fact, the right seems to function in a mode of permanent crisis, so the disagreement between the Euro-sceptic SaS and the remaining three ruling parties is not that exceptional. But as with all turbulent relationships, you can never know exactly when the end will come. Even if the quartet continues, this will be remembered as one of the most turbulent times.
There is even a slight possibility that Sulík will write European history. If he goes through with his plans to block the proposal and the opposition Smer party doesn’t lend the government a helping hand, Slovakia may become the country that blocks the only plan on the table to save the troubled parts of the continent. No one knows what would then happen to the euro, the union, or the country. But perhaps Sulík would at least get a chance to write another pamphlet: ‘The Eurospoiler – A Road to Chaos’.
