{"id":33840,"date":"2016-03-31T16:27:57","date_gmt":"2016-03-31T15:27:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/?p=33840"},"modified":"2016-03-31T02:40:01","modified_gmt":"2016-03-31T01:40:01","slug":"slovak-parliament-election-2016-splintered-coalition-and-radicalism-rises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/2016\/03\/31\/slovak-parliament-election-2016-splintered-coalition-and-radicalism-rises\/","title":{"rendered":"Slovak Parliament Election 2016 – Splintered Coalition and Radicalism Rises"},"content":{"rendered":"

Splintered politics and the surge of far-right parties in the Slovak Parliament prove that the people of Slovakia have lost trust in\u00a0traditional politics and seek whatever change from the former\u00a0status quo. Right-wing parties made modest gains in the election\u00a0and, while the centrist-right parties fared far better, some far-right parties\u00a0also gained a significant amount of seats in the Slovak Parliament.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Slovak<\/a>During the first weekend of March, Slovakia held Parliamentary elections. Expectations were high, because polls showed that the ruling populist left-wing Smer-SD party might lose their majority in Parliament and have to form a\u00a0coalition. The incumbent Smer-SD administration has\u00a0been characterised by its criticism, mainly by the liberal press, and several scandals, like overpriced purchases of hospital equipment, or opposition to the migrant quotas for Slovakia. A possible cacophony of a multiparty coalition might also be bad news; as\u00a0Socrates sharply noticed,\u00a0“a democracy does not work if there is more than one party to make decisions”.<\/p>\n

After the election results came in, the incumbent\u00a0Smer-SD party turned out to remain the largest party, but obtained only 28 percent of votes, which is not enough for a majority in the 150 member Parliament. Immediately after negotiations started between the Smer-SD, \u00a0the liberal Freedom and Solidarity party (SaS), the rather conservative O\u013eano-Nova, the far-right Slovak National Party (SNS), and young liberal #Sie\u0165 party. There are a couple\u00a0more parties that might be persuaded to form a majority coalition with the Smer-SD party, and will thus be able to push their own political agenda. This resulted in a resurgence of accusations of treason by\u00a0disappointing voters, who sought and alternative to the Smer-SD party and its policy.<\/p>\n

\"Marian<\/a>

Marian Kotleba<\/p><\/div>\n

Moreover, the whole of Europe was shocked by the fact that extreme right-wing\u00a0parties got into the Slovak Parliament. The People\u00b4s Party Our Slovakia (\u013dSNS), lead by Mari\u00e1n Kotleba, and known for its extremist opinions and close affiliations with far-right ideas, won 14 seats. Although the number of seats cannot be considered an electoral success, their performance cannot be neglected: in the previous four years they held not a single seat in Parliament.\u00a0Reactions to this\u00a0were almost unanimous in both domestic and foreign\u00a0media: \u201c[forming a coalition] will be complicated\u201d and \u201cfascists won seats in the Slovak Parliament\u201d. The Guardian<\/em> published an article that sounded more like a warning, reminding of the negative experience of the Holocaust. Slovak political commentators also wrote that Slovakia and Europe should not forget the negative experience of the WWII era. In short, Slovakia is a deeply divided country that just saw far-right parties enter Parliament.\u00a0Especially now, as Slovakia is preparing to take over the EU presidency in June, people wonder: how can we lead Europe if we cannot choose our own ruler?<\/p>\n

Fed up with traditional politics<\/strong><\/p>\n

If we look at the latest trends, the recent unprecedented rise\u00a0of far-right movements was not such a surprise. Over the last twenty years, people have learned that traditional politicians would never keep all their promises, writes Dani Rodrik<\/span><\/strong><\/a>, professor of economy at Harvard. It opens a space for demagogues, who promise easy solutions or changes. Indeed, a couple of years ago Kotleba was elected as the governor of the Bansk\u00e1 Bystrica region in central Slovakia, because he was the only alternative to a candidate of the ruling Smer-SD party.<\/p>\n

In the early 2000s, the government in Slovakia managed to implement some important economical reforms which allowed Slovakia to enter NATO and the EU. However, some kind of bias against new ideas and active learning, supported by the low status of teachers and nurses, whose\u00a0protests were part of the recent anti-refugee campaign, still cripples the development of Slovakia as a modern European nation. The people of Slovakia do not seemingly have a critical opinion and often follow the politician who speaks the loudest.<\/p>\n

\"Members<\/a>

Members of the People\u2019s Party Our Slovakia<\/p><\/div>\n

Each country has demagogues: in France they have Marine Le Pen, in the UK Nigel Farage, and in Slovakia, although I cannot make direct comparison, Mari\u00e1n Kotleba. He emerged ten years ago as a mere radical in central Slovakia and his public performances usually resulted in arrests and his organisations being banned. He has learned a lot since then, wrote the Guardian<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, and, although his ideas are still radical, he puts them forward in a more sophisticated way, which made him gain more\u00a0supporters from various backgrounds. Regardless of one’s opinion about Kotleba or his political ideology, it cannot be denied that these are, for some, a refreshing break from traditional Slovak politics.<\/p>\n

Promise what the people want\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kotleba, and other far-right politicians, address issues people are concerned about, but do so with policies that would violate human rights. Kotleba, for example has spoken favourably about\u00a0the eradication of immigrants or the Roma minority. The L’SNS’s rhetoric, furthermore,\u00a0creates an\u00a0image of itself that seems to\u00a0adhere to the values of the Slovak Republic (1939-1945), a puppet state of Nazi Germany.<\/p>\n

Radicalism currently\u00a0seems to go unnoticed, or possibly\u00a0institutionalised now that far-right parties have entered the parliament in Slovakia. Everyone has the right to be elected, but human rights are to be respected. It is an interesting time in Slovakia, since popular stances have been pitted against moral principles – Kotleba and his party being just a clear example of this that was used in this article. Regardless of which, the people of Slovakia seem to be losing their confidence\u00a0in traditional politics.<\/p>\n

\"Slovak<\/a>

Slovak Parliament in Bratislava<\/p><\/div>\n

Slovakia is politically splintered and facing a big challenge.\u00a0There are efforts by liberal parties to form a coalition that wants to continue economic policies, similar to those that allowed\u00a0Slovakia to enter NATO and the EU. Nevertheless, they might\u00a0have to co-operate with politicians, whose mandate is the result of cleverly built campaigns and populism. Moreover, Slovakia should be aware of the emergence radicalism.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Written by Erik Redli, AEGEE-Bratislava<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Splintered politics and the surge of far-right parties in the Slovak Parliament prove that the people of Slovakia have lost trust in\u00a0traditional politics and seek whatever change from the former\u00a0status quo. Right-wing parties made modest gains in the election\u00a0and, while the centrist-right parties fared far better, some far-right parties\u00a0also gained a significant amount of seats in the Slovak Parliament. During… Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":33843,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[8],"tags":[1927,1928,1929,1915,1913],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33840"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33840"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33840\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34184,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33840\/revisions\/34184"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}