Robert Fico and his SMER after more than 3 years of break returned to power And they formed a coalition with HLAS, which is erstwhile SMER members who left after the last losing election. For the coalition to have a majority, the SNS organization joined it with its 10 MPs.
This is Ficy's 4th word as Prime Minister. The erstwhile 1 was interrupted after the execution of writer Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírova. In the face of mass protests by Fico citizens, he gave his seat to Petr Pellegrini, who founded HLAS and is now the Marshal of the Slovak Parliament.
The fresh SMER governments abounded in corruption scandals, oligarchization of the country, and Fico himself and his Home Minister (now the Minister of Defence) Robert Kali accused of setting up and moving an organized crime group. These 3 and a half years without the power of SMER slow began to discover the pattern of corrupting octopus that operated in Slovakia. However, the chance to punish was lost by Incompetent Governments of Igora Matoviča and later on, Eduardo Heger. alternatively of solving crises passing through the country, they preferred to initiate intra-coalic disputes that resulted in a failure of a vote of confidence.
With us ends, in Slovakia begins
The old proverb says that where 2 fight, the 3rd 1 uses it, and here Fico uses it. He does what he promised – he rematches for years of “demeanor and defamation of a common oppositionist”.
He started with the Office of the peculiar Prosecutor's Office, which oversees investigations into the most serious criminal matters, including corruption. The position of peculiar Prosecutor is held by Daniel Lipšic, who has been Fica's political opponent for years. The second claims that the peculiar Prosecutor's Office is so politicized that the removal of Lipšic alone will not do anything. Only the removal of the full office remains.
The peculiar Prosecutor's Office is an autonomous department of the Slovak Public Prosecutor's Office, for which the lawyer General has very limited powers. And lawyer General Maroš Žilinka has frequently shown that he dances to the rhythm of the music played by SMER. He was the 1 who applied paragraph 363 to the defendants for organizing a criminal group, removing the charge from them. Žilinka now agreed to liquidate the peculiar Prosecutor's Office, declared the feasibility of this task and set up a group to carry out it.
As if that were not enough, the chief of the chief police of Štefan Hamran was fired, who disbanded the police and fought to guarantee that all case, regardless of whether it concerns politics, oligarchy or average man, was decently explained. The government besides proposed to abolish protection for those reporting corruption and to reduce penalties for it and another selected crimes.
However, the mastery of justice is only part of Fica's actions, which match what PiS was doing in Poland. due to the fact that what is simply a government without its propaganda media?
So besides in Slovakia, the process of submitting to public media has begun. It started with the separation of Slovak state tv from state radio (in 2010 they were merged due to savings). Today, the government says it'll save money to get back to the old order. In fact, the point is to put more of your people there, which will strengthen control and censorship.
At the same time, Fico broke off communication with the 4 largest editorial offices – "Denník Sme", "Denník N", tv Markíza and News.sk (edited by Kuciak). He accused them of being hostile and giving them false information. The boycott is to proceed until the editorial board “start to fulfil statutory obligations”. SMER MP Erik Kaliíčk called them “dezinformediates”. This is simply a clear political revenge for the fact that these editorial offices have informed about all the scandals and criminal matters related to SMER.
All these SMER projects were prepared on their knees without any expert debate. The ruling coalition wants to push them in fast mode, preferably by Christmas.
The opposition works together
If Fico was slow pushing his shifts, possibly it would have been without much opposition. He most likely hoped that during the holidays the Slovaks would forget about the rape of democracy and from a fresh year the candidate of the coalition would be able to successfully run the presidential campaign.
This candidate will most likely be Peter Pellegrini. According to the latest poll 46 percent of respondents trust him, do not trust 52 percent. This is the best consequence of all Slovak politicians.
Now, however, Fico has encountered an unprecedented phenomenon in Slovakia – a well-prepared and organized opposition that blocks government projects through obstruction in parliament. He is happy to exercise his right of speech on each bill, delaying the vote.
Meanwhile, Slovak MEPs in Brussels explain that Fico wants to act against EU rules. Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders already in early December said "The European Commission does not hesitate to intervene on Slovakia, including by reducing funds if Robert Fic's government's actions on the regulation of law violate EU rules". The EC concerns the president of the European Public Prosecutor's Office Laura Kövesi, who claimsthat the legislative changes proposed by the Slovak Government make a serious hazard of violation of the regulation of law.
However, like Orbán, Fico does not give up. The parliament has ordered nightly sittings to velocity up the process of voting on the laws. It is even said to limit the anticipation of expression for the opposition.
Oppositionists, critical of them Euro MPs, journalists and even average citizens of Slovakia Fico calls traitors, pests, informers and rats. In turn, ‘Progressívne Slovensko” speaks openly of a “mafied package of laws” that tries to pass the government. 3 of the 4 opposition parties (PS, KDH and SaS) have joined forces and have held protests on the streets for respective weeks each week. The first took place only in the capital, another already in all major Slovak cities. The larger ones are gathering respective 1000 people for now.
The coalition partners had everything planned: you will take over in accelerated mode, liquidate the peculiar Prosecutor's Office, settle with investigators who have previously prosecuted SMER-related people and announce an "amnesty" for suspects, accused or even convicted of corruption.
Fico wanted to be smart. He hoped that at a time erstwhile people were looking for gifts and fighting with time to finish the last tasks of the year, no 1 would announcement anything. Looks like he miscalculated.
