The Overton Window is Shifting in Czechia and Slovakia

Petr

Administrator
Slovakia is a relatively sheltered Eastern European country where Atlanticist neocons are currently in power, but there is plenty of anti-globalist discontent around as well, expressed both by right-wing nationalists and by Old Left (the "Dixiecrat" Social Democrats of Robert Fico).

I find it a positive phenomenon that anti-liberals there are becoming more "conscious," or not being just a bunch of grumbling boomers who complain about those darn kids, but realize that serious political struggle is needed to stop the emasculation of their nation.

Also, I think the best sign of Overton Window shifting is not necessarily that radical parties are getting more votes, but that even former centrists begin to use edgy language - and the
OLANO party, that this cuck complains about, is a very typical big-tent, catch-all centrist party:


MP Krupa Leaving OLaNO Caucus

July 28, 2022

4-53bfebf91e9fd88bc4f5134edbb79e700647737a-696x464.jpg


MP Juraj Krupa (photo by TASR)

Bratislava, July 28 (TASR) – OLaNO MP Juraj Krupa has reported on his Facebook account that he’s leaving the OLaNO caucus, explaining that he has reservations towards what he perceives as a shift in OLaNO’s values and the party’s leaning towards ultra-conservatism.

“The pillar of the current coalition of four parties was a key agreement on the protection of democratic values, and I don’t intend to give up on this after leaving the OLaNO caucus. However, I fundamentally refuse to legitimise extremists by inviting them to real power. I refuse to participate in moves leading to the corrosion of the perception of fundamental democratic values and the principles on which this coalition of four governing parties was built,” the MP explained, adding that he cannot be in the company of MPs who demanded the deaths of state representatives at the hands of a firing squad and erected gallows outside the homes of medics during the pandemic restrictions.

Krupa claimed that he’s discovered that OLaNO in 2022 is no longer the same party it was in 2020. “In little more than two years at the helm of the Government, it’s made so many U-turns in terms of values that it’s betrayed the principles on which it was based and the reason why so many people voted for the party in the general election. A party that presented itself as tolerant of different currents of opinion has become ultra-conservative,” wrote the MP.

Instead of engaging in the anti-corruption agenda, he claimed, the struggle against a so-called ‘liberal hell’ is beginning to escalate in the OLaNO caucus.

“Surprisingly, elements of [Hungarian President Viktor] ‘Orban’s nationalism’ have begun to be tolerated in the caucus, and OLaNO MPs have been flirting with the idea of cooperating with extremists – those extremist MPs who have consistently undermined the legitimacy of this governing coalition during the difficult years of the pandemic, rising inflation, the energy crisis and Russia’s war against Ukraine,” he remarked.


In his opinion, the culmination of the OLaNO caucus’s inclination towards ultra-conservatism is accepting the possibility of forming a minority government with the ad hoc support of various “criminals, extremists and fascists”. “To consider staying in the governing coalition under such unacceptable conditions has become a red line for my parliamentary conscience. I can’t cross it,” stressed the MP.

When Krupa officially leaves, the OLaNO caucus will have 47 MPs. The caucus has recently lost a number of MPs, with Martin Cepcek, who was expelled from it last summer, being the first. In October 2021, Jan Kroslak departed from the caucus, citing his long-lasting disagreement with the manner in which OLaNO leader Igor Matovic has engaged in politics. In January 2022, Jan Micovsky left due to what he described as his dissatisfaction with the state of affairs at the Agriculture Ministry, which he previously headed as minister. The most recent two MPs to leave the caucus were Romana Tabak and Katarina Hatrakova, who were both expelled after they didn’t vote in Parliament in favour of a motion meant to give the authorities consent to remand Smer-SD head and MP Robert Fico in custody.
 
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Petr

Administrator
The leader of Slovakia's old-school Socialists has these kind of views:


Fico: Ukraine Labels Me a Disinformator Because I Have Different Opinion


July 26, 2022


Bratislava/Kiev, July 26 (TASR) – The Ukrainian governmental authority for the fight against disinformation has labelled me a disseminator of disinformation regarding the war in Ukraine because I have views different from those of the Ukrainian and Slovak Governments, Smer-SD chair Robert Fico posted on a social network on Tuesday.

“Put more precisely, everyone with a different opinion than Ukrainian President (Volodymyr Zelenskyy) is a criminal. That’s what liberal democracy is like, even in Slovakia. If you have a different opinion, first they try to silence you in the media and discredit you and if that doesn’t work, they throw you in jail,” posted the former three-time premier.

Fico underlined that in Ukraine a war is being waged between the United States and Russia, with Ukraine being “under the absolute control of USA”.


“I’m not on the side of the USA or Ukraine or Russia; I’m on the side of Slovakia, the side of common sense and truth,” claimed Fico.

Ukraine’s Centre for the Fight Against Disinformation put Fico on the list of foreign figures in mid-July who spread “the narrative of Russian propaganda”. According to the text, Fico maintains that, unlike Russia, Ukraine hadn’t complied with the Minsk Agreement, Russia cannot be viewed as responsible for the conflict in Ukraine and that the West should scrap its anti-Russian sanctions.
 

Petr

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‘I’ve had enough of what Volodymyr Zelensky is doing’ – Former Slovak PM slams government support of EU sanctions on Russia

Former premier Robert Fico also had some choice words for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky

August 15, 2022

editor: REMIX NEWS

author: THOMAS BROOKE

The former Slovak prime minister, Robert Fico, has criticized the current government’s support of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, and believes that the sanctions imposed on Russia are predominantly to blame for gas and oil shortages in Europe this winter.

In a discussion program on Slovak news channel, TA3, Fico questioned the effectiveness of the sanctions that have mostly affected central and eastern Europe, with Slovakia being one of the hardest hit nations.

“I’ve had enough of what Volodymyr Zelensky is doing,” the former Slovak premier also told the news channel, reiterating his long-held disapproval for the Ukrainian president he has held since the beginning of the Russian invasion.

Fico blamed the current government’s decision to rubber stamp Brussels’ sanctions on Russia for the fact there will be a shortage of gas and oil this winter, and claimed the cost of living crisis which has seen inflation sky-rocket in the country is due to the punitive measures placed on Russia by the European Union.

The SMER-SD leader famously walked out of the Slovak parliament back in May as Zelensky addressed the country’s lawmakers. Fico accused the Ukrainian president of “lying on a daily basis” about the conflict in the country and of “harming the interests of Slovakia.”

Fico, known as a conservative populist, was closely aligned with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán during his term leading Slovakia. Since his fall from power, the country has sharply shifted to a transatlantic posture, including allowing for the construction of a U.S. military base, a move that polling shows is opposed by the majority of Slovakians.

Fico has previously called for Slovakia to cease providing aid to its neighbor, insisting that “Ukrainians never helped us” — “Ukraine blatantly lied to us in 2009 when we needed gas, and the government of Julia Timoshenko did nothing,” he said back in May.
 

Petr

Administrator
Slovakia is indeed an interesting example of hardcore nationalist ideas, not openly triumphing like in neighboring Hungary, but as if silently seeping into the wider society.

Case in point: back in 2016, Kevin MacDonald gave this report from a WN conference held in Germany:


The contingent from Kotleba (People’s Party — Our Slovakia) were also very optimistic about the future. Dr. Milan Uhrik, MEP and vice-chairman of the party talked about the success of the party in obtaining 14 of the 150 seats in the National Council, the Slovak Parliament, noting that the ongoing disaster in Western Europe is making nationalist ideas more attractive.

Now this same man is standing side by side with Robert Fico, who used to be the most influential politician in Slovakia for a long time, and who still is a heavy hitter. Uhrik is clearly a "junior partner," but they are nonetheless working together to bring down the Atlanticist government:


Smer-SD to Submit Petition Signatures for Referendum to President Next Wednesday


18. augusta 2022 16:49

Bratislava, August 18 (TASR) - A petition commission plans to submit signatures collected for a referendum on an early election to President Zuzana Caputova next Wednesday (August 24), head of the petition commission Igor Melicher (Smer-SD) told TASR on Thursday.

"On August 15, we concluded the collection of signatures on the streets, where we had our teams," said Melicher, adding that some signatures are still arriving by mail. Up to 400,000 signatures have been collected so far, with the precise number to be announced on Wednesday.

"The referendum on the resignation of the Government and a change in the Slovak Constitution is the only democratic way to resolve the deep crisis into which Slovakia has been missteered by the incompetent and divided coalition," claimed Smer-SD chair Robert Fico.

In a video released on a social network together with Republic chair Milan Uhrik, Fico called on the president not to attempt to thwart the referendum.

Uhrik added that Republic has joined the initiative because only cultivated and constructive opposition cooperation can effectuate change.


The president has already announced that she would challenge the question on the instant resignation of the Government at the Constitutional Court over suspicions of unconstitutionality. If the court decides that this part is unconstitutional, she would call only for a referendum on shortening the current elected term.


 

Petr

Administrator
As this Sorosite piece observes, also in neighboring Czechia the "Overton Window" has shifted so that mere petty judicial persecution is no longer enough to destroy the political career of Andrej Babis, a Trump-like populist tycoon (who yet is a rather colorless technocratic type: he would count as a "nationalist" politician only by Western European standards; in Eastern Europe, he is just a rather ordinary non-PC politician).

In the latest Kantar gallup, Babis's party stood at 32 %, by far the biggest party in Czechia, in spite of these accusations:



STORK’S NEST TRIAL A DIVERSION AS NEW DANGERS STALK CZECH DEMOCRACY


Tim Gosling

September 12, 2022

Out of power but still very much in the public eye, former prime minister Andrej Babis will be in Prague’s Municipal Court on Monday for the beginning of his eagerly anticipated fraud trial.

...

Not long ago, a whiff of financial impropriety was enough to wreck political ambition, as Stanislav Gross found out when questions over his purchase of a family flat ended his premiership in 2005.

“Fifteen years ago, even just the accusation would have been the end of Babis’s political career,” Eibl suggests.

But the rise of populism has all but banished the tradition for politicians to resign in the face of scandal. It now appears a badge of honour to brazen it out, deny all, and turn the accusations on the accusers.


Babis has followed this Trump playbook to the letter. He insisted from the start that the allegations were concocted by his political enemies to halt his effort to clean up a system rife with corruption.

In this scenario, the Stork’s Nest case only strengthens his claims that Czechia’s “political elite” perverts the course of justice and democracy to serve their own ends.

The tactic worked so well that the ANO leader simply trots it out whenever he comes under pressure.

When the EU definitively declared last year that the billionaire premier had a conflict of interest regarding millions of euros in subsidies paid to Agrofert, he simply repeated the mantra.

And although much of the country refuses to swallow it, polls suggest that around 30 per cent of the electorate is convinced.

Suspicious timing

The timing of the trial is only likely to encourage the belief of ANO’s core supporters in this conspiracy.

The case opens just 11 days ahead of municipal and Senate elections that are viewed as crucial tests of support for the centre-right coalition government of Petr Fiala, Babis’s replacement in the prime minister’s chair.

ANO voters have seen it all before. Just ahead of the election in October, the release of the Pandora Papers – investigative data on offshore transactions – outlined a number of questionable real estate deals carried out by the billionaire.


Although the documents featured hundreds of names from around the globe, Babis was swift to try to link the publication of the investigation with his political rivals.

The trial will be ongoing as presidential elections run in January, a race for which Babis is a front-runner, according to polls.

“Babis will argue again that the timing is a plot to hurt his support ahead of the municipal and presidential election,” says political analyst Jiri Pehe. “But it won’t really hurt him unless there’s a conviction. That would be a very different story from the accusations. But it’s a complex case so an outcome is unlikely for months.”

Although he’s yet to declare whether he will run for the presidency, the billionaire has been raising his profile throughout the summer as he drives around the country in a camper van, a tour bearing all the hallmarks of an election campaign. It has kept him on the front pages, as his mainly elderly and poorer supporters have clashed with protestors seeking to drown him out with whistles.

...

Babis has been seeking since the Russian invasion to use the Czech government’s support for Ukraine as a stick with which to beat his opponents. Czechs are getting short-changed, he claims, while refugees and Kyiv’s military are given huge handouts.

This story has struggled to gain traction amid strong support among the public for Ukraine, but the growing impact of surging inflation and energy bills look to be changing the agenda. The centre-right government is struggling to respond to the very real fears of the country’s most vulnerable that they’ll struggle to stay warm over the winter, and pressure is growing.

Illustrating a wave of anger that surprised most, an estimated 70,000 protestors gathered in Prague on September 4, and the leaders of the demonstrations, a motley collection of pro-Russian extremists, say more are planned.

Babis will hope that this could help him boost support. The governing parties, meanwhile, will be tempted to grab at any potential prop. And driven as they were to victory by their promise to oust Babis, the Stork’s Nest trial will be hugely tempting for them.

However, although officials are braced for a rush for the public seats in the Municipal Court’s room 101, Babis’s corruption issues no longer offer the kind of impact that brought over a quarter of a million out onto the streets of Prague three years ago to demand his head.

“The governing parties will be keen to remind people of how evil Babis is,” suggests Eibl. “But they need to move on. They need to move forward and deal with the anger and fear rising around the country.”

Unless the political mainstream can step up to deal with the fears of vulnerable Czechs, a million of whom voted in October for extremist and fringe parties that did not cross the threshold to enter parliament, there is mounting worry that the upcoming elections could spring some nasty surprises.
 

Petr

Administrator
It seems that in both Czechia and Slovakia we are seeing not so much any radical actions but rather quiet consolidation of Dissident Right forces - like for example in Prague, SPD is joining forces with smaller, non-parliamentary groups (populist votes were badly wasted in the last Czech parliamentary elections, going to parties that missed the 5 % barrier) in the coming municipal elections:




SPD/Milan Urban, leader of the SPD, Tricolor, PES Movement and independents coalition together for Prague

SPD, Trikolora, Hnúti PES and independents together for Prague: We will expel activists from the municipality


Sugar Mizzy

August 13, 2022

Declaration of the election association SPD, Tricolor, Hnúti PES and independents together for Prague for municipal elections

In Prague, the SPD teamed up with a number of non-parliamentary parties and independent personalities to drive the activists out of the municipality for good.

To make Prague cheap again, to simplify and make life more attractive for the people of Prague, that is the main goal of the electoral association, which was created by the SPD, Trikolora, PES, smaller political parties and independent candidates. The alliance of nationally oriented parties and movements enables the people to choose a strong alternative to the current leadership of the municipality and at the same time the opportunity to issue a certificate of an unpopular government.

“This year’s municipal elections will be an opportunity to put an end to the current coalition at the municipality. We have prepared solutions that will put Prague back on its feet after years of hardship. We will completely reverse the direction of development. We will fundamentally make people’s lives cheaper and better. Under our leadership, Prague will once again be a self-confident world metropolis where everyone will want to live. It is necessary to end the rampage of activists at the municipality, which no one is leading,” explained the leader of the Milan Urban (SPD) coalition of program priorities.

In this year’s municipal elections in Prague, the SPD, in cooperation with Trikolora, fielded its candidates in 14 Prague municipal districts in addition to the municipality. In the other three city districts, people will then have the opportunity to vote for SPD candidates on the candidate lists of other political parties. SPD, Trikolora and Svobodní are running together in Prague 9, SPD, Trikolora and the PES association in Prague 4 and Prague 11, and SPD in Prague 17 in cooperation with the Manifest.cz political party and Jindřich Rajchlo’s PRO (Právo Respekt Odbornost). “All of us who think well of Prague have joined together so that none of us will lose votes in the elections,” explained Urban, who works as an architect/urban planner in an international office.

Background: The leader of the joint candidate of the SPD, the Tricolor and the PES movement for the municipality, and at the same time a candidate for the Senate in District No. 19, is Dr. -Ing. Milan Urban, a native of Vinohrady, vice-chairman of the Prague SPD, an architect with a technical doctorate from Bauhaus Universität in Weimar, Germany, an expert in urban planning with many years of experience in Prague from Great Britain, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Milan Urban is a member of the Czech Chamber of Architects and a registered architect in Great Britain. At the same time, he has experience from the Prague council (2002–2006 and 2010–1014) and from the London constituency of Lewisham East for the Labor Party (member 1996–2008, Political Officer). In the years 2012–2015, he was a member and chairman of the supervisory board of Pražská plynárenská. At that time, he personally advocated for the completion of the buyback of Pražská plynárenská. At the same time, he advocated the purchase of Prague Energetica, Prague Services and Prague Waterworks and sewers back into the property of the city.

There are a number of independent personalities on the joint list of candidates, headed by prof. Lectured by MUDr. Zdenek Seidl, CSc., professor of the 1st Faculty of Medicine of Charles University, Prof. RNDr. Ivo T. Budil, DSc., university pedagogue and historian, Pavlo Kuřet, a well-known veteran and museum curator from the show Treasures of the Earth, doc. Jiří Hejlk, philosopher, pedagogue and vice-chairman of the DOST event, or Mrs. MUDr. Ilona Műllerová, doctor and chairman of the commission of the Czech Union of Freedom Fighters. On the joint list of candidates we will find members from the political party Manifest.cz, from the Czech National Social Party (ČSNS) vice-chairman JUDr. Jaroslav Krála, CSc. and Ing. Petra Ježka, Ph.D., and members of the ZEMANOVCI Citizens’ Rights Party. The candidate is supported by SPD MEP doc. Lectured by MUDr. Ivan David, CSc., MPs SPD Mgr. Jiří Kobza (at the same time candidate for the Senate in Prague District No. 22) and Jaroslav Bašta. Candidates for Trikolora include its vice-chairman Josef Sláma, Bc. Martin Gebauer or RNDr. Jiří Vyhnalík, for example Jiří Janeček, vice-chairman of the PES movement.

We will present a concrete solution to get Prague back on its feet at a press conference, the date will be announced in advance.

Enough of Fialo’s preciousness—enough of thieves in the municipality—enough of pirate experiments

For Freedom and direct democracy, RK Prague – Josef Nerušil, chairman of RK Prague

For the Trikolor political party – Josef Sláma, vice-chairman of the Trikolor party

For the PES movement (Law – Economy – Freedom) – Jiří Janeček, vice-chairman of the PES movement
 

Petr

Administrator
Here is a one sign that promises bright future for Czech nativists; their Communist rivals are now almost moribund:


Similarly, the communists confirmed that they are no longer pulling voters. While in Ostrava last time they won nine percent and had six representatives, now they are just above the necessary five percent threshold. They also lost the former working-class towns of Most and Kladno as well as Děčín in North Bohemia. The SPD strengthened in these cities.


All the “protest votes” went to ANO and the Freedom and Direct Democracy Party – what is happening to the Czech left?

“The Czech left has suffered a decline that is long-term. It is not the first time that the Communist Party and the Social Democrats have suffered an election defeat – the decline has been for around 10 years. This time it seems that the Communist Party was definitely erased from the political map and there is nothing to indicate that the Social Democrats are returning to the political mainstream. It is a sad story, but it seems that leftist voters simply believe Mr. Babiš who has positioned his movement as leftist-populist and has basically cannibalized most of the voters of the Communists and the Social Democrats.


Why is this such a big deal? Because as this piece, written in May 2016 (when Czech nativist forces were still in the process of getting properly organized) observed, the presence of big Old Left, or left-wing populist, party that was soaking up the working-class protest vote, was one of the main structural obstacles that prevented anti-globalist Czech nationalists from hitting big:


“That one problem for Mr. Konvička; the other is that the Czech Republic is the only country in the post-communist block that still has a very strong Communist Party that basically plays the role of a protest party, so anyone who wants to protest against foreigners, migration, EU, or Germans has the Communists to vote for and can be certain that their vote will not be lost because that party will always be in Parliament –at least in the foreseeable future. I think that to some extent the Communist Party plays a sanitary role in the Czech political system, because it attracts a lot of votes that would otherwise go to extreme right-wing parties and this is one of the reasons why the Czech Republic does not have a party such as Jobbic in Hungary or the People’s Party of Mr. Kotleba in Slovakia.”

But now the days of Czech Commies are numbered, and SPD can rise up to 20 % just by filling the position they used to hold.
 
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Petr

Administrator
Again some quiet development in Czechia; even though the cuckservative ODS party frowns upon the nativist SPD party on the national, parliamentary level, many of its voters are sympathizing with it on the local, municipal level.

This is how PC "cordon sanitaires" first begin to break - in villages and towns where ordinary right-wing people do not consider it such a blemish to live and let live with those terrible "Far Right" types whom the snotty cosmopolitan NPCs would like to cancel:



The ODS considers the SPD an “undemocratic entity”. What do you think this implies?
I personally don’t like this labeling. It is true that the ODS has a different view than the SPD on a whole range of social issues, but at the municipal level it is more about people and programs for the city.
Why does Prime Minister Fiala and the ODS leadership forbid coalitions with the SPD?
It is an effort to drag parliamentary politics to the local level. In my opinion, it is not good when it is ordered from above which coalitions are “not allowed”. None of those gentlemen from Prague have any insight into local conditions and they should leave it to the people in that city to choose the best possible solution for the success of their party.
Did national politics play a role in your decision? Disagreement with the government’s actions, or leaning more towards ANO and SPD?
Although I watch some of the government’s actions with some concern, I wish it the best it can to guide the country through a difficult period. I think she is completely failing to explain her actions in a way that is understandable to the majority of the nation. However, at the parliamentary level, I do not gravitate towards the SPD or ANO. However, at the local level, throughout the last election period, we cooperated very well with the members of the ANO movement, and apart from them, paradoxically, it was only the SPD that did not insult us and did not lie about our activities.
 
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Petr

Administrator
Here is a piece by a Sorosian NGO that hopes nationalists will fare badly in the upcoming Slovakian municipal elections:


And yet I found this encouraging detail which signals the breaking down of an important line in the cordon sanitaire:

For example, the far-right parties ĽSNS and Republika, a few smaller nationalist parties, as well as the second strongest parliamentary party Smer led by ex-prime minister Robert Fico have long criticised Slovakia’s military support of Ukraine and anti-Russian sanctions, blaming them for the current crises.

Smer and Republika, a party formed last year of ĽSNS renegades led by MEP Milan Uhrík, created tens of local and regional coalitions ahead of the elections, even though Smer claimed in 2017 they would act as “a dam against extremism”.
 

Petr

Administrator
Again, this Sorosite source notices that the Leftist parties of Slovakia (unlike shitlib parties) are no longer so averse to allying with nationalists - or at least the nationalists of Republika, who have made some sensible optical concessions, unlike the hapless LSNS party which apparently just can't hack it:



In fact, Slovakia’s far-right – with the exception of Kotleba’s win nine years ago – has never fared well in regional or municipal elections, certainly not as well as it has performed in national parliamentary elections.

Even so, the far-right MEP Milan Uhrík described the performance of his Republika party, which he established with other renegades from Kotleba’s People’s Party Our Slovakia (ĽSNS) last March, as a “decent result”.

“We can now fully concentrate on what is a priority for us – national politics,” Uhrík said.
...

Republika improved its position by, in large part, stealing votes from Kotleba’s ĽSNS. In regions and towns, one mayor, 23 local councillors, but no single governor or regional councillors will represent Kotleba’s party – a result similar to the years 2017 and 2018 when previous local elections were held.
...

Uhrík’s party on its own won five mayoral seats, 103 local councillors, and one regional councillor. The regional councillor, MP Milan Mazurek, ran for governor in the Prešov Region but ended up in third place with just 10.9 per cent of the vote. In 2019, a court found Mazurek guilty of making racist anti-Roma remarks on the radio. Thanks to it forming local and regional coalitions with Hlas and Smer, the current strongest mainstream parties according to polls, Republika won a few more seats.
...

As for the overall poor scores of far-right parties in the recent elections, observers highlight the recent fragmentation of Kotleba’s party and the subsequent establishment of Republika.

In the gubernatorial race in Banská Bystrica, for example, four candidates could be identified as extremist: Rudolf Huliak (National Coalition), MP Miroslav Suja (Republika), MP Marek Kotleba (ĽSNS) and Jozef Sásik (Slovak People’s Party). Of those extremist politicians, Huliak fared best by coming third. Together, they won 55,354 votes, or 29.2 per cent. Had there been just a single extremist candidate, he would have come in second after Lunter, who won 96,438 votes.

“Their [far-right parties’] target group is the same and it’s not weak,” stressed Václav Hřích of the AKO agency in an interview with the TASR news agency.

Political analyst Grigorij Mesežnikov went further, telling the Markíza television channel that these parties, if integrated, could become the third strongest bloc in national politics after the centre-right and centre-left blocs. “It is a challenge for the current democratic parties to influence voters so that this does not happen,” he said.

But any reintegration of Republika with ĽSNS seems unlikely for now.

In the RTVS public broadcaster’s political debate show broadcast after the election, Uhrík publicly said that ĽSNS is “a terminal party” and called on Slovak patriots to join Republika. On Facebook, in response to Uhrík’s statement, Kotleba labelled the Republika chair as “a man who serves the plans of globalists” and accused him of dividing ĽSNS in collaboration with secret agents.

“Behind the division of our party is his ambition to be the chairman and to get into a government coalition with someone at any cost,” Kotleba added.
...

Republika’s Uhrík does little to hide his national political ambitions. “We have shown that we have coalition potential,” he said during the debate on RTVS.

Slosiarik of the Focus polling agency, who doesn’t see any trend of a retreat on the part of far-right parties, estimates that Republika’s potential support oscillates at around 10 per cent, stressing the party might tip the scales in any coalition talks, which could shape the country’s future for the coming decade.

Previously, the former ruling party Smer hasn’t shied away from collaborating with ĽSNS, whether that was the 2018 vote on the UN’s migration pact, the 2019 vote on the 50-day moratorium on pre-election polls, or this year’s vote on the US-Slovakia Defence Cooperation Agreement. And this despite Smer’s chairman and former prime minister Robert Fico pledging in 2017 that his party would fight extremism.

In February, Fico announced he would not mind cooperating with Republika after the 2024 parliamentary election.
While Republika’s members have criticised Fico in the past, they refused to support a request for Fico’s arrest in May and helped collect signatures for Fico’s snap election referendum.

The party that currently tops the polls, Hlas, led by Peter Pellegrini, refuses to cooperate with ĽSNS and criticises Fico’s cooperation with Republika, but it hasn’t ruled out cooperation with Republika either.

In the recent local elections, Hlas, Smer and Republika formed several coalitions. Together, the three won three mayoral seats in the districts of Námestovo, Žilina and Kysucké Nové Mesto in northern Slovakia.
 

Petr

Administrator
Elections to the National Council of the Slovak Republic will take place on September 30 this year. Slovak sociologist Michal Vašečka is not surprised by the results of the polls, because according to him, Ficův Smér has a very strong core of voters. “There are a huge number of those who are convinced that they will vote for the Direction and only the Direction,” explains in an interview for Deník N. It is said that the direction’s support can climb up to 25% or even higher. “Given the mistakes made by those who are commonly called ‘Slovak democrats’, Smér can reach 20% within a month,” he adds.
...
Another growing opposition force is the already mentioned nationalist movement Republika, which Vašečka considers to be extreme right-wing. The popularity of this movement is said to be growing especially among young voters in the 18-25 age group. Today, young Slovaks vote for either the progressive Progressive Slovakia or the Nationalist Republic, i.e. two opposite poles of the political spectrum.
Fico is said to have received Slovakia “on a golden platter” due to the chaos of the current government. According to Vašečka, Slovaks are losing faith in democracy, tending towards “anti-Western sentiments” and yearning for a “strong leader”. According to a survey by the agencies MNFORCE, Seesame and the Slovak Academy of Sciences from last July, si more than 50% of Slovaks rather wish for Russia’s victory in the conflict in Ukraine. 70% of Slovaks are against the supply of weapons to Ukraine. 80% think that the current politics in the state is going in the wrong direction. It is precisely on the anti-war program and general dissatisfaction with the current government that Fic’s Direction is building its election campaign. “The population doesn’t know what to do with themselves,” sighs sociologist Vašečka about people who hold different political positions than he does.
 

Petr

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Slovakia's leading Far Right politician, Milan Uhrik, tries to persuade the supporters of smaller Far Right parties not to throw their votes away and consolidate behind his party (Republika) - which would then become the third biggest political force in Slovakia:


347380198_163850713160444_8873774950911346311_n.jpg
 

Petr

Administrator
ANO is currently by far the biggest political force in Czechia, so their turning into right direction would be the best guarantee against shitlib contagion in that country - they are currently far from being a good party, but I think they might become at least tolerably good (for example, capable of co-operating with genuine nationalists like SPD):



 
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