Page 48 - bne monthly magazine June 2024 Russian Despair Index

48 I Central Europe bne June 2024
struggling to recruit more soldiers as Russian forces advance, and is now looking to those who earlier fled the country.
Recently, Ukraine denied consular services to all male Ukrainian citizens aged 18-60 living abroad unless they updated their information in a special military register, so that Ukraine will know whether men of draft age who have left the country are hiding from the service. Expiring passports will only be replaced if they come home.
Warsaw believes such measures affecting Ukrainians as a group appear dubious from a legal standpoint.
Pushing tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people out of the country could also be problematic for the Polish economy, which is grappling with acute labour shortages.
"I cannot imagine the Polish labour market without Ukrainian citizens.
I think this would be a very serious problem for us from the point of view of companies’ competitiveness,” Deputy Home Affairs Minister Maciej Duszczyk told the Polish parliament recently.
That said, some in the ruling coalition hinted they didn't like Ukrainians enjoying life in Poland while their country is being bombed into submission.
“I think many Poles are outraged when they see young Ukrainian men in hotels and cafes, and they hear how much effort we have to make to help Ukraine,” Prime Minister and Defence Minister Kosiniak-Kamysz told Polsat News.
According to a survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KMIS), only half of Ukrainian refugees currently residing in Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic are willing to return home if certain conditions are met, including security, stable employment in critical infrastructure, housing availability, and the conclusion of the war.
Ukrainian refugees arriving in Poland in 2022. / bne IntelliNews
www.bne.eu
Slovak society, described variously as fragmented and highly polarised.
“I see not only polarisation but fragmentation within our society,”
the country’s liberal President Zuzana Caputova warned last June ahead
of the national elections campaign, which culminated in September amid the circulation of deep fake videos of Progressive Slovakia leader Michal Simecka allegedly taxing beer, and hoaxes and conspiracies invoking dangers ranging from “illegal migration” to “Brussels gender ideology”.
Following the victory of Peter Pellegrini, the candidate of Fico’s coalition, in the presidential elections in March and April, Pellegrini and his team were criticised by liberal media for employing ever more aggressive rhetoric and divisive strategies in
the second round, when they falsely claimed that rival pro-Western diplomat Ivan Korcok would send Slovak soldiers to fight in Ukraine.
Caputova herself decided last year not to seek re-election after her daughters faced death threats and amid speculations that she was worn out by Fico’s relentless attacks, which were amplified by far-right politicians and online extremists.
As Slovakia gears up for elections to the European Parliament next month, the question is whether this climate of hate will only worsen or whether politicians will step back from the brink.
“For the past 2-3 years NGOs and journalists following Slovakia have been ringing alarm bells about the state of Slovak society, described variously as fragmented and highly polarised.”