Igor Matovič is living up to his antagonist role in this normalcy-dominated campaign and his main campaign stunt so far has been that he brought dozens of Fiat 500 vehicles to Bardejov. (source: TASR)
Welcome to your weekly commentary and overview of news from Slovakia. The election campaign is about different parties’ competing visions of normalcy. Citizens living abroad have until Wednesday to register to vote. Former police officer sentenced to 10 years in prison for bribery.
If you have a suggestion on how to make this overview better, let me know at michaela.terenzani@spectator.sk.
On being normal
Corruption continues to be a major problem in Slovakia. The national economy struggles to keep up with those of its neighbours when it comes to innovation. And, like most of Europe, Slovakia continues to grapple with inflation, the aftermath of the pandemic, and the war in neighbouring Ukraine, as well as the hybrid war it has battled for years.
But what people in Slovakia crave is to feel things are normal again, whatever that means.
This is apparent from the campaign messages of political parties across the spectrum. Because, during an election campaign more than any other time, the marketing aspect of politics comes to the fore, and politicians who mean business first measure the mood of the electorate before they have their spin doctors and agencies design the messages they then push in the hope that voters will respond positively on election day.
In 2012, Robert Fico and his Smer party scored a landslide victory with the slogan “People deserve certainties”. In the 2023 snap election in Slovakia, much hope is laid on the word “normal”.
Smer, which is set to gain about one fifth of the vote based on current polls, is not using the slogan on its current billboards, but it is a word that Fico and his fellow candidates, mostly middle-aged white men, tend to utter, along with, especially, “normal” as opposed to diverse. They also talk about stability and the end of chaos.
It is one thing they have in common with the nationalist SNS, which has had a strong presence on billboards around Slovakia, and most recently has been telling people that they are ready to “stop the lunatics”.
