President Zuzana Čaputová delivers her third State of the Republic speech on November 29, 2022, in Slovak parliament. (source: TASR)
It will be one of the "most serious and critical" reports on the state of the republic, President Zuzana Čaputová said at the beginning of her address to the parliament. In the end, she avoided direct criticism on several points.
In the speech delivered to the MPs on November 29, she did not mention the responsibility of specific politicians for spreading misinformation. Though she cited she "unclear" method of support the minority government has in the parliament, she did not directly mention that it also succeeds in approving proposals thanks to the support of deputies elected on the slate of the fascist party, ĽSNS.
The president also said that spreading hatred is unacceptable. But she did not specifically mention the LGBT+ community, even in connection with the murder in front of a Bratislava gay bar, which the police are investigating as a terrorist act.
These are the key moments from the president's speech:
1. Many were left out of the package to aid families
"One in three households of single-parent families and lonely seniors and one in three households of families with three or more children are at risk of poverty. Almost every sixth child is at risk of poverty."
In Slovakia, the number of people at risk of poverty has increased by 45,000, to a total of 660,000, the president pointed out. While other countries were taking measures to counter the steep price increases, in Slovakia help arrived "relatively late and at a relatively low amount".
Čaputová refers to the adoption of the aid package, which was finally pushed through by OĽaNO leader, Finance Minister Igor Matovič. The parliament broke the president's veto with the votes of ĽSNS MPs. Then coalition partner SaS had refused to vote for the proposed measures.
The approval of the package with the fascists was one of the main causes of the coalition crisis that stretched over the summer, and eventually led to the departure of SaS from the coalition and the government.
Despite the passed aid package, many people suffering the most due to the increase in prices "do not receive enough help", according to the president.
She also cited specific examples, such as a father from Humenné supporting his three children alone with €400 a month and who cannot find a proper job. The tax bonus, which is part of Matovič's package, does not apply to him.
A childless pensioner from Prievidza, who has worked all her life, lives on a 350-euro pension, but she does not fall under the valorisation of pensions or the parental pension bonus, in the framework of which Labor Minister Milan Krajniak (Sme Rodina) established that children will be able to send part of the taxes and levies they pay to the state to their retired parents.
2. The government has no answer to drastic savings
"The provisional budget would be a loss for all of us."
The president delivered her address just a few days before Finance Minister Igor Matovič (OĽaNO) in the parliament.
The minority government of PM Eduard Heger (OĽaNO) does not have enough support for the budget in the parliament and must rely on non-affiliated MPs, especially those who left the extremist ĽSNS and are now part of the grouping around MP Tomáš Taraba.
Čaputová has warned that if the parliament fails to approve the state budget for 2023, the state will enter the new year with a provisional budget.
In the event that happens, the government would only have €8 billion every month to spend, at a time when it will have to make significant contributions to households and companies to cope with high energy prices in the critical winter months.
When the debt brake is activated in May, even more drastic consequences are likely to occur - the loss of thousands of jobs, lower salaries and even more significant austerity. This will happen if the government does not change the constitutional law on budgetary responsibility by then. That, however, requires at least 90 votes, which the government does not have.
"The government has not yet announced how it will cope with the debt brake penalties," the president has warned.
3. Defending doctors from Matovič's attacks
"Everywhere, even among doctors, we find people who fail personally or professionally. But let's not allow ourselves to judge or even condemn doctors now, based on potential individual failures. We must not feed a new wave of hatred against people, the vast majority of whom have provided years of quality service to patients."
The negotiations between the government and the medical union culminated in an agreement over the weekend, which should prevent 2,100 of the more than 5,000 hospital doctors from going out of work.
Just hours before the agreement was announced, Finance Minister Matovič announced on Facebook that he was withdrawing from the negotiations. He claimed that his stomach had turned, calling the doctors extortionists who take patients hostage, and recalled the story of his father, whose rescue the doctors allegedly made contingent on a bribe.
The president blames the government for starting negotiations with the medical unions "at the last minute", but at the same time adds that she has no ambition of assessing what happened during the negotiations and "where the mistakes occurred".
Although experts warn that the result of the agreement is significantly in favour of hospital doctors, and that other health professions will now have equally strong demands for which the state will not have the money, the president does not mention this consequence of the deal between the doctors' unions and the government.
4. In disinformation Slovakia is the worst in the region
"The goal of this hybrid war is to weaken our institutions, undermine trust in democracy, tear Slovakia out of the political West and bring it back under the Russian sphere of influence."
The president refers to the hybrid war as a war that "is being fought against us without a shot being fired". The disinformation applied in this war is not just a product of modern times and a phenomenon of social networks and the Internet, she noted.
"Unfortunately, this is not the case - a massive part of [the disinformation] is part targeted propaganda," the president said. At the same time, Slovakia lags behind other countries in the ability to distinguish facts from lies.
She highlighted the teams of experts working at the ministries of defence, foreign affairs, and interior; did not connect the spread of disinformation with politicians, especially from the ranks of the opposition, who have participated in its dissemination during the pandemic and since the invasion of Ukraine.
5. Spreading hatred is inadmissible, the president did not name the LGBTI+ minority
"Hate is not without consequences. A few weeks ago, just a few meters from here, it cost the lives of two innocent young people. Let's stop it, please, before it costs more."
In mid-October, a radicalised student in Bratislava killed two people from the LGBTI+ community in front of the Tepláreň gay bar. The police are now investigating it as an act of terrorism.
Though immediately after the attack the president expressed strong support for the community, she now mentioned this terrorist act in her report in just a single paragraph without directly naming that it was directed against LGBTI+ people.
She spoke more generally about minorities.
"We have minorities who need to hear and experience the affirmation that they are an equal part of our society. That they are respected in their rights, which we have not granted them so far. That we care that our citizens who belong to ethnic minorities enjoy sufficient opportunities for the advancement and development of their languages and culture," Čaputová said at the end of her speech.
The queer community is still awaiting the first steps in order to be granted the same rights as heterosexual couples, and for changes to laws that would make it easier for unmarried partners to inherit or view health records, which the ruling coalition promised.
In her speech, the president also condemned hatred towards prosecutors, judges or investigators, as well as attacks against journalists.
"If a judge faces threats for their properly reasoned decision and has to request police protection, the legitimate level of criticism has been far exceeded," the head of state emphasised. According to her, verbal attacks have been underestimated in the long term, and this needs to change in the age of social networks.
"If we don't protect democracy, we may be the last generation to experience it," she added.
6. Smer attacks justice and thus democracy
"It is especially obvious at the press conferences of the representatives of one political party, who appear simultaneously in the positions of lawyers, witnesses, or the defendants, and present their own concerns to the public as a threat to democracy."
Although the president does not directly name the opposition party Smer , it is clear from the context of her speech that she was pointing to the actions of its chair Robert Fico, MP Ľuboš Blaha, and Erik Kaliňák against the investigators and courts.
Smer repeatedly questions the investigation of the most serious cases of Fico's government and is especially linked to the institution of the cooperating accused - so-called penitents - although they are Fico's own long-term collaborators and nominees.
"A considerable number of high-ranking public officials exploited their position and performed serious criminal activity. It must be emphasised that we are no longer talking only about suspicions, but in several cases, about the valid judgments of the courts," says the president.
The extradition of Fico as a member of parliament was supposed to prevent influence, but the parliament, thanks to the votes of OĽaNO and Sme Rodina, did not extradite him before a judge to assess the validity of the detention.
In the report, she also mentioned the questionable authority of General Prosecutor Maroš Žilinka, when he can cancel the criminal prosecution through paragraph 363 of the Criminal Code. He applied the paragraph to the case of Vladimír Pčolinský, the former head of the Slovak Information Service (SIS) who is facing corruption charges. He was the nominee of the Sme Rodina party, which also nominated Žilinka for the post.
The president is also calling for the government to complete the reform of the judiciary, which was developed by the Justice Ministry during the time of Mária Kolíková as minister. The current minister, Viliam Karas has postponed the completion of the reform.
7. Strong appeal for early elections
"Things cannot go on like this in Slovakia without the remnants of public trust and the cohesion of our society being destroyed. If the ruling coalition cannot reverse this, then we are in danger of the political crisis growing into a serious crisis of democracy. In that case, it would be better to allow the citizens to choose their elected representatives anew."
The president has never before so openly indicated that early elections could be a better solution for the country than completing the mandate of the current minority government led by OĽaNO.
In what is probably the most critical part of the entire report on the state of the republic, President Čaputová covers the period from the summer government crisis, which resulted in SaS leaving the opposition, to the current confusing situation in the parliament.
"The unprecedented confusion is the result of domestic politics. The public is even losing track of who really rules and who is in the opposition," says the president, pointing out that the government is passing laws in parliament thanks to "an unclear way of supporting the government."
However, it does not specifically change the fact that the government has succeeded in enforcing laws thanks to the support of fascist deputies and their renegades.
According to Čaputová, this situation is leading to the level of people's dissatisfaction reaching record numbers. "This parameter has been studied since 1998 and in the entire period of 24 years it has not reached such a critical level," she claims.
The political competition of the parties was limited to "eliminating the adversary," and according to her, the parties forgot that they were supposed to serve the people.
"The government objectively has a difficult situation because of the crises. However, I consider it dangerous that it is managing many of them in a way that has turned the crisis into a drama to the last moment. We are not football fans to choose who we support more or trust," the president points out.
This is also why she reached the conclusion that the tension in society can result in a crisis of democracy. In that case, early elections are a better scenario, although the president does not directly mention them. She talks about "allowing the citizens to choose their elected representatives anew."
