The debate of first-time voters

I am sure that many of our students are planning to go out and vote in the parliamentary elections, which will be held on February 29th, 2020. There are many political parties to choose from, and most people have already figured out which side they are going to take. Whether they prefer the conservative or the liberal way of thinking, one thing is for sure – every single one of them thinks that the views of their party are the right ones.

I, as a first-time voter, have also chosen a party to support. Among young people, there are certainly some who do not find politics to be interesting. It is understandable, though, it is not for everyone. However, on the other side of the spectrum are young people like you and me, that get very engaged in political issues. Some even get so engaged, that they become well-known and stand out of the crowd.

One of these people is Marek Mach, an 18-year-old student that goes to a grammar school in Senica. He is very well known for creating various projects such as popular movement “Mladí proti fašizmu”. This project, which launched in 2016 after the party “Ľudová Strana-Naše Slovensko” was elected as one of the member parties of parliament, focuses on protesting against extreme views and opinions, which appear in the parliament. Another one of his projects, “dúhy.sk”, focuses on the LGBTQ+ minority. Its goal is to make it easier for this minority to be accepted into the more conservative thinking society.

The other person, which gets a huge amount of attention is Lívia Garčalová, who is also 18 years old, and studies at a bilingual grammar school in Spišská Nová Ves. She became widely known after uploading a video focused on the negatives of multiculturalism. This video quickly became a topic of many conversations. While some people agreed with the views presented in this video, others found them to be extreme. A bit later, Lívia joined and became the face of Kulturblog.sk, a blog focusing on traditional values. Sadly, opinions published on this blog sometimes put down the validity of some minorities.

Both of these people are very interesting and get a lot of attention. For a few weeks, they had been negotiating the details of a public confrontation of their views until they finally reached an agreement. There were a few struggles along the way, like finding a reporter that was objective enough and would not be biased. In the end, Rádio Expres’s reporter Michal Sabo reached out to these young people, offering to lead this discussion. After a few weeks of preparations, the two and a half-hour podcast was published on Youtube and other streaming platforms, such as Spotify and Soundcloud.

The moderator Michal Sabo had prepared various topics for these two people to speak on. He started the discussion with a short talk about the upcoming elections and politics, where both sides expressed their opinions and views. The opponents had a long discussion, where they spoke on a variety of subjects. Beginning with migration, multiculturalism, the LGBTQ+ community, extremism linked to the parliament party “Ľudová Strana – Naše Slovensko”, and even going to more serious topics like sexual abuse and abortion.

I found this discussion to be very fascinating. I have supported both of Marek’s projects for some time and I knew a lot about Lívia’s views as well. I attempted to be unbiased and listen to their discussion with a clear mind, but I have already formed some opinions. Overall, I think that it was very interesting to listen to. I believe it could even inspire young people to talk about politics and share their opinions more openly, no matter what their views are.

Source of the title image: https://www.expres.sk/