Marian Kotleba (source: Sme - Ján Krošlák)
Regional elections in Slovakia are still one year away, but people’s eyes are already on Banská Bystrica region, where the far-right governor is likely to run for re-election.
Personalities of public and cultural life have recently issued a joint appeal to chairmen of democratic political parties to join forces behind one candidate who could beat the incumbent Marian Kotleba. The current governor secured a surprise victory in 2013 when he received 55,53 percent of votes in the run-off round against the ruling Smer candidate and then-incumbent governor, Vladimír Maňka.
Kotleba and his People’s Party – Our Slovakia (LSNS), which made it to the national parliament in the March 2016 elections, often glorifies the wartime Slovak State, a Nazi satellite that assisted the Nazis in deporting its own citizens of Jewish ethnicity to concentration camps. He and his fellow party members have also been known for some controversial actions and statements about Roma and LGBT community, calling them parasites and perverts.
“The situation is serious, there are people in the parliament who are openly praising the legacy of the wartime Slovak state that deliberately and actively sent at least 60,000 of our compatriots to death,” the call to unite against Kotleba " Stop Fascism" reads.
