PM Robert Fico criticised diplomats from EU countries for not attending a commemoration of the WWII liberation of Bratislava, and suggested a referendum on military spending. (source: Jozef Jakubčo, SME)
Welcome to your weekly commentary and overview of news from Slovakia. Parliament will soon debate what NGOs are calling “the Russian law”, a massive crackdown on civil society. Fico criticised diplomats from EU countries for not attending a commemoration of the WWII liberation of Bratislava, and suggested a referendum on military spending. Another foot-and-mouth outbreak is reported in southern Slovakia.
If you have a suggestion on how to make this overview better, let me know at michaela.terenzani@spectator.sk.
Fico’s cabinet owns the law on NGOs
Activists and civic organisations call it “the Russian law” – as well as a frontal attack on the foundations of democracy in Slovakia. Prime Minister Robert Fico, echoed by all his coalition yes-men, rejects that description and insists it is a European law based on European standards that aims to achieve nothing more than transparency from NGOs, particularly when it comes to their financing.
Or, as one of the draft law’s authors, Slovak National Party (SNS) MP Adam Lučanský says: the government only wants to ensure that citizens know “who’s on who’s side”.
And so this week parliament will start debating the law, which means it will likely come into force later this year. In 2023, Fico’s government brought forward an amendment to the Criminal Code that has already resulted in impunity for a throng of people previously accused in high-profile corruption cases. Last year, the coalition legislatively dismantled the public-service broadcaster RTVS and purged major cultural institutions. Now, following an unplanned hiatus caused by a crisis among the coalition parties that lasted several months, the time has apparently come to crack down on the third sector.
