It would seem that vacations in politics, too, are a time of peace and rest. But not in Slovakia. Here, the government coalition is taking advantage of the summer atmosphere and the citizens' vacation to launch a frontal attack on the state.
This text has been auto-translated from Polish.
Shortly after taking power, the new Minister of Culture Martina Šimkovičová (SNS nominee), previously known for her work at the disinformation web TV Slovan, controversially fired the director of Bibiana, an international art house for children. She did not specify the reason. As interim director, Šimkovičová appointed Petra Flach, her neighbor, who has no experience in culture or managing cultural institutions. After a few months, Petra Flach became the full-fledged director, as by coincidence she was the only person applying for the position.
On the initiative of the culture minister, the police summoned for questioning the artist Ilona Németh, the initiator of the petition for the minister's resignation, which was signed by 188,000 people. She herself was an active participant in November '89 (that's when the Velvet Revolution began - the mass protests that led to the collapse of socialism), but she has only now received her first summons to the police. "I thought that similar practices ended with the Velvet Revolution," said the artist after the hearing.
Moments later, the Director of the Slovak National Theater, Matej Drlička, who had been on sick leave, received a notice of termination on the doorstep of his apartment. He, too, does not know the reasons for his dismissal, and the Culture Minister has never contacted him. The reasons for Drlička's termination were not even known to the broader SND leadership. "It reminded me of the days of the ŠtB (Security Service), which would enter apartments in the morning to announce bad news," said Drlička. It wasn't until the evening that Šimkovičová presented her reasons for removing him from his post. She did so on her account on ... the Russian Telegram network. Among the allegations against Drlička are almost the very examples of criticism of her ministry.
Intimidation, censorship and show of force
The director of the Slovak National Theater, in addition to theater actors, was publicly defended by the director of the Slovak National Gallery, Alexandra Kusá. She herself was terminated the next day, also without giving a reason. Kusá had held her position since 2010, and had successfully completed an extensive reconstruction of the SNG's main building, for which the institution had received numerous awards and accolades. The ministry later released a statement justifying her dismissal with management failures during the reconstruction, and she is also blamed for the "bad" presentation of Slovakia at the Venice Biennale and for the fact that there is "no Slovak flag" at the Slovak National Gallery. In addition, the minister said at a press conference that the gallery does not display works by Slovak artists.
The Ministry of Culture entrusted the management of the Slovak National Gallery to Anton Bittner. This is a man who has nothing to do with culture. As he himself admits - he does not understand art. His lack of competence is evidenced, for example, by the fact that for years he unsuccessfully applied for various positions in the budget department, and his main occupation in recent times has been esotericism and Tao medicine. The ministry, in turn, presents him as an experienced "stabilizer" and restructurer. He allegedly understands finance, with his own company either making losses or, at best, earning 0 euros. It's also worth noting that SNG has had no problems at all, and has been very popular since opening after its reconstruction.
After these events, a petition for the dismissal of the Minister of Culture was again created. It was signed by more than 170,000 people in four days, more than the total number of people who voted for the SNS in past elections. Cultural people speak of attempted intimidation, the introduction of censorship and a show of force. Experts about the insult and targeted destruction of Slovak culture.
The opposition is rallying more protests in Slovak cities and gathering signatures among MPs to open a session where parliament will vote on Šimkovičová's dismissal.
"We will only remember her activities as spreading fake news, embarrassing performances on an underground YouTube channel, vanity, intimidating artists or attacking our own citizens," summarized the minister's recent "achievements," opposition SaS chairman Branislav Gröhling.
Most of these events took place in the space of just 2-3 days. Just when everyone thought this was the end of the hurricane in the government's actions, the Justice and Interior Ministers and the Attorney General appeared.
Courts with courts, and justice must be on our side
The police inspectorate headed by Interior Minister Matúš Šutaj Ostok (Hlas) has begun prosecuting police officers, investigators and prosecutors who investigated the criminal activities of those close to Smer in a case dubbed Očistec (Purgatory). To clarify: Purgatory concerns the abuse of the police for political and private purposes. The prosecutor's office is pursuing some of the former officers as an organized crime group headed by oligarch Norbert Bödör and former police chief and now Smer MP Tibor Gašpar. Officers who publicly stood up for their accused colleagues were transferred to regional units.
At the same time, the longtime director of the community police, Mario Kern, left the police under unclear circumstances. There were reports that the entire unit would be disbanded. With the end of the month, the same will also apply to NAKA (the equivalent of our CBD). NAKA has so far dealt with, among other things, corruption cases and organized crime, in recent years mainly related to the period of the third Fica government. The liquidation (or, as the coalition refers to it, reorganization) of NAKA means that investigators will be transferred to departments throughout Slovakia, and cases will be reassigned. Inconvenient investigators will be sent to the other end of the country and thus forced to leave the police force. Former NAKI chief Ľubomír Daňko was accused of abusing his powers a few days earlier.
Along with Daňko, several other investigators were indicted. All were involved in the indictment and subsequent conviction of former special prosecutor Dušan Kováčik, a Smer appointee. Kováčik was a symbol of an era in which corruption was rampant throughout Slovakia, and a personal protector of the people over whom Smer held a protective umbrella as they worked for the party that protected them. As special prosecutor, he did not bring a single indictment during his entire tenure. It was thanks to him that the egos of politicians and some mafiosi, such as Marián Kočner, were able to grow to dangerous proportions - they all thought they were untouchable.
The "get out of jail" card
As the media debated the actions of the culture minister, Justice Minister Boris Susko (Smer) decided to suspend the sentence of the legally convicted Kováčik, who was immediately released from prison. This is the result of the Robert Fica government's "we will take care of our people" campaign.
In 2022, Kováčík was convicted of corruption by the Supreme Court - he received eight years in prison and a fine of one hundred thousand euros. He ended up behind bars for accepting a bribe of 50,000 euros from the Mafia for the release of Ľubomír Kudlička, the head of one of the Mafia groups. All this comes despite the fact that the former special prosecutor is still legally convicted of corruption and indictments have been filed against him in two other cases.
Kováčik is also one of the defendants in the Purgatory case. As I've written before, it was in this case that indictments were filed against the officers and prosecutor Michal Šúrek. Prosecutor General Maroš Žilinka suspended Šúrek on charges of abuse of power. The case thus lost its supervising prosecutor. It was Šúrek who handled all three of the aforementioned charges against Dušan Kováčík. Now his cases will be taken over by other prosecutors, but it is unclear by whom and when. In the Purgatory case, there is speculation that the new prosecutor may withdraw the indictment.
At the same time, another change in the revised Criminal Code is coming into effect, which Smer has tailored for himself and "his people." However, it is not only prominent defendants in well-known, politically sensitive cases who have been waiting for this. For thousands of people, the new legislation means a guaranteed pass from prison or pretrial detention, as the crime for which they were convicted is no longer punishable or has become time-barred after the change.
There are security concerns in society for good reason. As of August 6, the value of the damage from which, for example, theft can be said to be a crime, has increased to 700 euros (previously it was 266 euros). Already there are headlines in the media about waves of thefts of bicycles or scooters. Is there anything to be surprised about, since according to the amended law, the penalty for theft of property worth less than 700 euros is 33 euros?
There have also been questions about whether and when Marán Kočner will be released.
State decay continues
Ministers and top politicians aren't talking to the media, at most posting social media statuses about the opening of the Olympics, speculation about the gender of Algerian boxers, well, and a rotten opposition that is still unable to "respect the election results." This is what the coalition says about the opposition's reactions to the destruction of the state it is carrying out in front of all citizens.
This is also seen by the European Commission, which in its report on the rule of law alerts to the critical situation in Slovakia. The Commission notes both the criminal law and the threat to public media. It claims that the government is opening the door to activities that encourage corruption. Meanwhile, Robert Fica's government is lying to the Slovakian people straight to their faces, claiming that all of its actions comply with European Union law and that the European Commission agrees with them. According to the coalition, the EC relies only on the opinion of three "anti-government" dailies. Well, the European media must be very envious of the kind of power that barely three Slovak titles have.
It seems that the ruling coalition has purposely chosen the holiday period for further moves against democratic institutions, inconvenient police officers and prosecutors, and against civil society. All this serves as a show of power, further dividing society and inciting aggression. This is the calming of the situation that the coalition has been talking about since the assassination of the prime minister.
The situation in Slovakia is getting more worrisome by the day. What is happening at the moment only highlights the absolute decay of the state. Slovak politicians are doing everything they can to ensure that young people leave the country en masse and never return.
What else does the coalition have to do to make its voters finally say "enough"?
