(source: SITA)
With just months until the next parliamentary elections, it’s anybody’s guess whether the actions, or at least the rhetoric, of Robert Fico and his government would have been more generous and welcoming if the current events were taking place two years ago. But amid the election billboards growing in both number and size, there seems to be little room for generosity, especially towards people who do not have voting rights in this country.
A calm explanation of the few hundred of refugees that the country should take in based on the common European quota system and the impact it might have on Slovakia’s citizens does not make for a good speech in an election debate. A raised voice and a claim that we have somehow been harmed or forced to do something against our will does.
This is most likely one of the reasons why Fico, unlike his allies from the other three anti-quota countries, is not shying away from even suing the EU, a grouping of which the country he represents has been a core member and benefit-consumer for more than a decade.
“You can stretch the rope only to certain point, then it frays,” said Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka when asked whether his government will join in Slovakia’s lawsuit.
The Slovak government is either naive enough not to realise that it is getting to that point, or cynical enough to know it and still think local.
