Recently, we celebrated 30 years of freedom. Freedom, which our parents could not experience when growing up. On November,17th 2019 it was exactly 30 years since the velvet revolution, one of the most important moments in Slovak history. You have probably registered something about this since the media has been all over it. However, I decided to write this blog anyway. Despite not living in Slovakia anymore, the destiny of my country of origin is not indifferent to me. Many of you may not realize that we are again at a crossroads.
Another parliamentary election will be held on February, 29th 2020. According to exit polls, the democratic opposition does not have the majority without the populist Boris Kollár, whose agenda, four years ago was purely based on uploading videos to Facebook where he used immigrants as a threat. It seems that democratic leaders must sacrifice their values and “swallow bitter saliva” (pun intended) in order to give signal to their voters that they are able to cooperate and govern. The reason this signal is so important was clearly stated by the sociologist Martin Slosiarik. He warned that the neo-Nazi, Kotleba, has the potential to win in the election, if he were to collaborat with the former Minister of Justice Štefan Harabin. Even though they could not find consensus about the coalition now, what are the odds they will not find it in March of next year, given that they both manage to get to the parliament; and SMER- SD will be authorized to form the government – still the most probable option.
As we have seen in the past few years, parties which have declared themselves as “protecting traditional values” had no inhibitions to lying, spreading fake news about anyone and anything and evoking negative emotions in the people, such as fear and hatred to other ethnic or cultural groups. This is followed by the labelling of all other opponents with stickers, such as “ultra-liberal”, “Soros’s kid”, “a prostitute of the USA” and so on. By creating a polarized society like this, people spend time arguing instead of paying attention to politicians’ actions and holding them accountable, leaving journalist to do this job alone. Just before the election, it will have been two years since the horrible murder of a journalist, who was just trying to hold the politicians and their friends accountable.
The investigation has shown how poorly the justice system in Slovakia works. Now ask yourselves a question: “Do I want to live in a country where I get punished for expressing my opinion?” If the answer is no, do not vote for politicians who” haven’t noticed the regime change in 1989” or admire authoritarian regimes in Hungary and Russia, or those who use Nazi symbolism and rhetoric, or those who punish their opponents for having different views on justice. The victory of these individuals would mean that we are heading backwards to before the 89’, to where there is no separation of power and no justice.
Alex Jurča is a member of PS party