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If the coalition were to collapse it would be a shattering blow for Slovakia’s rightwing parties, which came to power exactly one year ago amid huge optimism after eight years of corrupt leftwing nationalist-populist rule under Robert Fico’s Smer, which has dominated the country’s politics since 2006.
The murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his partner exposed the capture of the country’s police
and judicial system by Smer and its business backers, and sparked massive public demonstrations that led to Fico’s resignation and the right’s victory in the February 2020 general election.
The current political crisis has demonstrated the weakness, inexperience, divisions and lack of governing ability of Slovakia’s right wing. Only SaS and For the People have clear ideological profiles; Matovic’s Ordinary People and Independent Personalities party (OLaNO) and
Boris Kollar’s We are Family are just personal populist vehicles. None of these parliamentary parties have long histories – the SaS is the oldest and it was only founded in 2009 – and they will rise and fall along with their political founders.
“There is no tradition or ability to create something that could last long,” says Simecka. “All the parties are founded by alpha males and they are born and die with that alpha male.”
As well as personal animosities, these parties are divided on how liberal they are on social policy and the free market, and on their attitude the EU. They
can unite when they face a monolithic opponent – such as Vladmir Meciar’s HZDS in the 1990s or Robert Fico’s Smer for the past 15 years – but usually struggle to maintain that unity in power. Disappointment then leads to political oblivion and the rise of new parties on the right, perpetuating the cycle.
“The agenda is anti-Fico without building a strong centre-right alternative” says Blanka Kolenikova, country risk associate director for IHS. “They focused their energy on fighting Fico.”
Polish writer faces prison for calling President Duda a 'moron'
Wojciech Kosc in Warsaw
Polish writer Jakub Zulczyk is facing up to three years behind bars for calling President Andrzej Duda a “moron” in a critical Facebook post, Polish media report.
In his Facebook post written after the US presidential election, Zulczyk commented on a tweet by Duda in which the president congratulated Joe Biden on a “successful presidential campaign”, adding that Poland was awaiting “a nomination by the Electoral College”.
The grudging tweet, merely acknowledging the success of Biden's campaign, was symptomatic of the Polish rightwing government’s attitude to the president-elect, whose defeat of Trump – whom Warsaw idolized – came as an unwelcome development.
“I have never heard of a "nomination by the Electoral College" in the US election process. Biden won ... The president-elect in the US is ‘announced’ by news agencies, there is no central body or office that does it ... Joe Biden is the 46th president of the United States. Andrzej Duda is a moron,” Zulczyk wrote. He is a graduate of American studies.
Zulczyk now faces charges for violating an article in the Polish criminal code that says “whoever insults the President of the Republic of Poland in public shall be subject to the penalty of the deprivation of liberty for up to three years.”
Zulczyk has refrained from commenting on the charges brought against him by Warsaw’s prosecutor’s office.
“Whether I plead guilty or not, I will tell the court first and then the media,” Zulczyk wrote in another Facebook post.
Some commentators have joked on social media on how the court case might proceed.
"I'm not sure which way the burden of proof runs with this one, but either Jakub Zulczyk is going to have to prove that President Duda is a moron, or President Duda is going to have to prove that he isn't a moron. Either way, I'm sure this will be an edifying spectacle," political scientist Ben Stanley tweeted.
It is not clear if President Duda even knows about the case – or knew about it before it made headlines in Poland and globally – as it was reportedly brought to the prosecution by a private citizen.
And it is unlikely that Zulczyk will actually receive a prison sentence. Similar cases in the past resulted in offenders receiving the penalty of community service as their offenses are fairly trivial.
An earlier case involved a man who created a computer game in which one shot at the image of Duda’s predecessor Bronislaw Komorowski. Another case involved a man who drew a penis on a Duda election poster.
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