Illustrative stock photo: Andrej Kiska (l) and Robert Fico (r) (source: Sme)
As former PM Robert Fico and former president Andrej Kiska attack each other over what they claim are politically motivated criminal charges brought against them, experts have said the affair is unlikely to have any effect on their political supporters ahead of elections in just a few months.
Earlier this month, the National Criminal Agency (NAKA) charged Smer chairman Fico with defamation of a nation, race or belief, and incitement of hatred towards a nation, race and ethnicity over a video he uploaded on Facebook earlier this year.
Meanwhile, just a day after Fico was charged, Kiska, who launched his own party Za Ľudí after he left office in June, was charged with tax fraud linked to his KTAG company and the financing of his 2014 presidential election campaign.
Bitter rivals defend themselves
The two bitter political rivals have defended themselves against the claims.
Fico had uploaded a video in September shortly after Milan Mazurek, an MP for the far-right People’s Party Our Slovakia (ĽSNS) was found guilty of defamation of nation, race and belief for racist comments he made about Roma people in 2016.
In his video, Fico said Mazurek had only said what “everyone in Slovakia thinks”.
