President Andrej Kiska (source: TASR)
Leader of People’s Party Our Slovakia (ĽSNS) Marian Kotleba is a fascist and there is a need to name things directly and clearly without any fear, President Andrej Kiska stated when commenting on his discussions with students about extremism, the the TASR newswire reported on April 7.
Young people are often surprised when they receive an explanation of who Kotleba really is. Apart from the fact that he marches in uniform with a torch, he also declares that the Slovak National Uprising in 1944 is one of the saddest moments in the history of our state. He keeps telling people that it is not their problem that many Jews were taken away to concentration camps and perished under the wartime Slovak State in1939-45, according to Kiska.
“Kotleba is a fascist, and when we speak about this with students, they often propose banning his party,” Kiska said, as quoted by TASR. “But we don’t want to ban anything because that’s not a solution. We need the state to function properly.”
Kiska paid a visit to the town of Krupina in Banská Bystrica region on April 7 partly due to the results of the 2016 general election, which saw wide support for Marian Kotleba’s ĽSNS in the town, according to TASR.
When a state is failing, people resort to extreme solutions. Everything possible must be done to improve the functioning of the state and to look for solutions that will help to prevent people from voting for extremism, according to Kiska.
At a meeting with Krupina town council Kiska learnt what bothers the local people most.
“The unemployment rate is around 10 percent here, but the truth is that many young people have left for bigger cities,” Kiska said, as quoted by TASR. “There are villages in Krupina district whose unemployment rates exceed 50 percent. Infrastructure is another thing that the people of Krupina are worried about. International traffic, which includes big lorries, passes through the city on a daily basis. That’s not acceptable.”
Kiska also attended a discussion with pupils from a local secondary school and stated that as a president he has been talking to students about what helped ĽSNS get into parliament.
“I’ve been meeting young people over the past few weeks. We always discuss why they voted for an extremist party,” Kiska said, as quoted by TASR. “I’ll never show support to any political party that leans towards fascism or consider it to be a normal political partner.”
