Far-right LSNS leader Marian Kotleba in parliament. (source: Sme)
One has to hand it to the far-right extremists in parliament: they sure know how to stir up public debate.
Obviously, that is no hard task for politicians who are willing either to play on people’s fears and prejudices, or to grab society by an issue that divides it deeply and abuse it for their own political ends.
The fascist ĽSNS is not the only party on the Slovak political scene to have mastered both these approaches. This time around, it has gone for the latter option by proposing a draft law that would radically restrict access to abortion for all women residing in Slovakia, and ban abortion for any woman coming from abroad.
The reasoning provided by the four male ĽSNS MPs who came up with the proposed legislation is an exemplary text on its own, fully adhering to the fake news genre: these men feel justified in claiming that a “great many” pregnant women opt for an abortion “just because of career, promotion at work, to maintain their slim figure, for their debauched lifestyle and the desire to prolong their youth, or just out of laziness”.
