Robert Fico launched a smear campaign against PS leader Michal Šimečka. (source: TASR)
Welcome to your weekly commentary and overview of news from Slovakia. Protesters call on Fico to dismiss two ministers; he responds by launching a smear campaign against opposition leader Michal Šimečka. As Slovakia prepares to celebrate one of the brighter moments in its history, coalition politicians have shown that they are ready to abuse history.
If you have a suggestion on how to make this overview better, let me know at michaela.terenzani@spectator.sk.
Fico attacks to distract and discourage
“These are just the facts,” was how Robert Fico summed up a press conference that he had convened at the Government Office last Friday to allege – with “much regret”, as he repeatedly emphasised – that the “Šimečka clan”, as he now calls it, has been long been “siphoning” public funds.
The story that he went on to relate, using a handful of PowerPoint slides to illustrate his “facts”, is not news. Nor is this whole style of performance – the prime minister convening the media at the Government Office to tell a story about his main opponent, referring to suggestive data points chosen selectively to fit his narrative, peppering reporters with sly comments about how he really has better things to do and hates to drag his opponents’ relatives into the political fight, but – sigh! – has no choice but to do so.
The reason why he has no choice – and this is another story that is not news to anyone – is that the opposition party Progressive Slovakia (PS), of which Šimečka is the leader, was arrogant enough to organise an anti-government protest, which according to Fico’s logic means that it wants to see another attempt on a politicians’ life in Slovakia. (Fico himself was shot at a public appearance in May, but has since recovered.) He rounds this off by pre-emptively accusing the assembled journalists in the press room of negligence, saying that they will not report on his claims anyway because they are biased and would “defend Šimečka with their own bodies”.
Pointing an accusing finger at Šimečka serves the purpose of distracting attention from Fico’s own ministers’ decisions, which have resulted in massive protests and widespread calls for them to resign. Another effect, intended or unintended, is to sow doubt and further undermine people’s trust in the system.
