Slovak Elections and Politics: presidential runoff on 6 April 🇸🇰
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  Slovak Elections and Politics: presidential runoff on 6 April 🇸🇰
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Poll
Question: Who would you vote for? 🇸🇰🗳️
#1
Peter Pellegrini (Hlas-Smer)
 
#2
Ivan Korčok (SaS-PS-KDH)
 
#3
Štefan Harabin (far-right)
 
#4
Patrik Dubovský (conservative)
 
#5
Igor Matovič (Slovensko)
 
#6
Andrej Danko (SNS)
 
#7
Marian Kotleba (ĽSNS)
 
#8
Ján Kubiš (independent)
 
#9
Other
 
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Partisan results

Total Voters: 36

Author Topic: Slovak Elections and Politics: presidential runoff on 6 April 🇸🇰  (Read 76010 times)
PSOL
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« Reply #325 on: December 25, 2021, 11:09:12 PM »

Anti-imperialists in Slovakia protest proposal for defense agreement with US
Quote


Earlier this month, the Slovakian defense and foreign affairs ministries held talks on the Agreement on Defense Cooperation with the US, which is likely to be approved by January 2022. The Socialisti (Socilaist movement) has claimed that the defense agreement will compromise Slovakia’s sovereignty over its own territory and security and will drag the country into the imperialist machinations of the US. Earlier, the campaign group United for Peace launched a petition calling for prohibition of temporary or permanent deployment of any foreign troops in Slovakia.  As of December 23, the petition had been endorsed by 20,764 people.



Artur Bekmatov from Socialisti said that as a consequence of the defense agreement, US would occupy two military airports in Slovakia. US military presence would be long-term and would see the Slovak government awarding special privileges to US soldiers such as suspending criminal authority against US soldiers present within its territory.

In their petition, United for Peace has demanded the Slovak national council to adopt a constitutional law on prohibition of temporary or permanent deployment of any foreign troops on the territory of the Slovak Republic and to enshrine the right to peace in the constitution. It also calls on the president to ratify the 2017 UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).
The petition has gotten the signatures of more than 20,000 people.
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Astatine
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« Reply #326 on: December 25, 2021, 11:15:50 PM »

Anti-imperialists in Slovakia protest proposal for defense agreement with US
Quote


Earlier this month, the Slovakian defense and foreign affairs ministries held talks on the Agreement on Defense Cooperation with the US, which is likely to be approved by January 2022. The Socialisti (Socilaist movement) has claimed that the defense agreement will compromise Slovakia’s sovereignty over its own territory and security and will drag the country into the imperialist machinations of the US. Earlier, the campaign group United for Peace launched a petition calling for prohibition of temporary or permanent deployment of any foreign troops in Slovakia.  As of December 23, the petition had been endorsed by 20,764 people.



Artur Bekmatov from Socialisti said that as a consequence of the defense agreement, US would occupy two military airports in Slovakia. US military presence would be long-term and would see the Slovak government awarding special privileges to US soldiers such as suspending criminal authority against US soldiers present within its territory.

In their petition, United for Peace has demanded the Slovak national council to adopt a constitutional law on prohibition of temporary or permanent deployment of any foreign troops on the territory of the Slovak Republic and to enshrine the right to peace in the constitution. It also calls on the president to ratify the 2017 UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).
The petition has gotten the signatures of more than 20,000 people.
They can brag they collected more signatures than votes SDKÚ-DS received in the 2016 elections!
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Estrella
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« Reply #327 on: December 26, 2021, 07:08:37 AM »

Anti-imperialists in Slovakia protest proposal for defense agreement with US
Quote


Earlier this month, the Slovakian defense and foreign affairs ministries held talks on the Agreement on Defense Cooperation with the US, which is likely to be approved by January 2022. The Socialisti (Socilaist movement) has claimed that the defense agreement will compromise Slovakia’s sovereignty over its own territory and security and will drag the country into the imperialist machinations of the US. Earlier, the campaign group United for Peace launched a petition calling for prohibition of temporary or permanent deployment of any foreign troops in Slovakia.  As of December 23, the petition had been endorsed by 20,764 people.



Artur Bekmatov from Socialisti said that as a consequence of the defense agreement, US would occupy two military airports in Slovakia. US military presence would be long-term and would see the Slovak government awarding special privileges to US soldiers such as suspending criminal authority against US soldiers present within its territory.

In their petition, United for Peace has demanded the Slovak national council to adopt a constitutional law on prohibition of temporary or permanent deployment of any foreign troops on the territory of the Slovak Republic and to enshrine the right to peace in the constitution. It also calls on the president to ratify the 2017 UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).
The petition has gotten the signatures of more than 20,000 people.
They can brag they collected more signatures than votes SDKÚ-DS received in the 2016 elections!

Or that Za ľudí will get in 2024!

Anyway, these kinds of petitions happen every once in a while and they never lead to anything. I wonder what would these "anti-imperalists" say if you asked them about Russia's recent actions in Ukraine or the 1968 invasion.
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CumbrianLefty
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« Reply #328 on: December 26, 2021, 09:29:14 AM »

Are there actually elements in Slovakia who approve of the Soviet intervention in 1968?
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Estrella
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« Reply #329 on: December 26, 2021, 11:51:39 AM »

Are there actually elements in Slovakia who approve of the Soviet intervention in 1968?

It's an opinion on the fringe of the fringe. Dubček is perhaps the only politician in Slovak history almost nobody has anything negative to say about. As luck would have it, I was going through some of my grandparents' things not long ago, and I found a popular accessory in the monts following the invasion: a picture of Dubček masked as a pocket square.

Still, you will be able to find people who think the invasion was the right thing to do. I mean, even Vasiľ f-cking Biľak has some fans, and he literally invited the Soviets to come.

Remembered for his role in "inviting" Soviet troops to invade Czechoslovakia in 1968. A very popular person to hate - one of the publicity stunts OĽANO would become famous for was parking a tank in front of Biľak's house and aiming the gun at his bedroom window. After his death in 2014, his home village caused a nationwide outrage after they decided to erect a memorial for him, which lasted all of a week before it was stolen.

If there's anywhere you could expect to find them, it would be in fringe far-left and/or pro-Russian parties like those that support this petition. I wanted to find out what the position of the Communist Party (KSS) is, and turns out they sued some artists who vandalized the aforementioned memorial the day after it was erected. One of their people was kicked out of the courtroom for yelling "Long live socialism!". I suppose that sums it up.

Anyway, Socialists and KSS, the two parties mentioned in the article, aren't the only ones with similar positions on foreign policy. Wikipedia articles of other such parties make for hilarious reading. I wrote a couple times in this thread about how minor parties regularly get bought and sold to get around the hassle of founding a new party, often radically changing their name and supposed ideology. I mean, look at this:

sk.wikipedia.org/wiki/SLOVENSKO_DO_TOHO_!
Quote
LET'S GO SLOVAKIA ! (from 2012 to June 2015 Coalition of Citizens of Slovakia, abbreviation KOS, from June to November 2015 Movement O2H, from November 2015 to August 2017 Courage - Great National and Pro-Russian Coalition) is a Slovak extraparliamentary political party, at first centrist, later nationalist and pro-Russian, registered with the Ministry of Interior on 7 June 2012.

https://sk.wikipedia.org/wiki/VZDOR_–_strana_práce
Quote
RESISTANCE - Labour Party, abbreviation RESISTANCE (from 1998 to October 2006 The B - Revolutionary Workers' Party, from October to November 2006 Party of the Self-Employed of the Slovak Republic, from November 2006 to May 2010 Party of the Self-Employed, from May 2010 to January 2011 Socialist Party of Civic Freedom, from January 2011 to February 2014 FREEDOM) is a Slovak communist and anti-capitalist extraparliamentary political party.
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PSOL
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« Reply #330 on: December 26, 2021, 12:39:19 PM »

I would assume the Socialists do not like the invasion, as they are more Eurocommunist in orientation from what I’ve gathered.
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Estrella
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« Reply #331 on: January 28, 2022, 04:41:33 AM »

At last, we have the results of the 2021 census.

Population
Total 5,449,270 (up 52,234 compared to 2011)
Born abroad 213,550 (3.9% of total population)
Urban 53.2% / Rural 46.8%

The mid-2000s baby boom is over and the growth is due to emigration to Western Europe being balanced out by even bigger immigration from ex-Soviet countries and the Balkans. I mean this in the kindest possible way, really (great to see people coming here for a better future even as many Slovaks leave), but there are Ukrainians everywhere. Slovakia continues to have one of the lowest rates of urbanization in Europe, and the lowest outside Balkans.

Ethnicity
Slovak 83.8% + 1.0%
Hungarian 7.8% + 0.6%
Romani 1.2% + 1.6%
Czech 0.5%
Rusyn 0.4%
Other ethnicities 0.9%
Not stated 5.4%

Numbers here aren't very different from the previous census. The numbers after the plus are for an optional question about "belonging to another ethnicity". For example, if someone has spoken Hungarian since they were a kid but it's not really their mother tongue, they could state their ethnicity as Slovak and "another ethnicity" as Hungarian (like yours truly).

Religion
Roman Catholic 55.8%
Lutheran 5.3%
Greek Catholic 4.0%
Calvinist 1.6%
Eastern Orthodox 0.9%
Other religions 2.1%
No religion 23.8%
Not stated 6.5%

The number of people identifying with the Roman Catholic Church fell by 300,000 or 6 percentage points compared to 2011, and by 700,000 or 12 percentage points compared to 2001. Definitely a reason to celebrate considering what an absolute nest of vipers it is.* "Others" are mostly Evangelicals and Pentecostals who made big gains since the last census, almost exclusively in poor Romani areas in the east. Largest non-Christian religions are Buddhism (6,722), Islam (3,862), Paganism (4,007) and Judaism (2,007). Honorable mentions to 14,207 Svedkovia liehovoví ("Alcohol's Witnesses"), 1,389 Jediists and 590 Pastafarians.

* Besides all the typical Catholic scandals, the former archbishop of my diocese was literally an agent for the Communist secret service, got rich thanks to manipulated privatizations, embezzled diocese's funds worth millions and orchestrated the extremely controversial firing of his reformist successor for no discernible reason besides him wanting to start investigating corruption. Enough said.
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Estrella
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« Reply #332 on: February 04, 2022, 02:03:11 PM »

Man, it's been two years already? Yes, it has - we've nearly reached the middle of the term of this car crash of a government. Admittedly the past few months were a little less chaotic than what came before, but they're still about as popular as the plague.

Something not unconnected to the above: the first Smer poll lead in two years

Smer 15.6%
Hlas 13.5%
SaS 13.5%
PS 10.6%
OĽANO 9.5%
Sme rodina 5.7%
Republika 5.6%
KDH 5.0%
ĽSNS 4.1%
Alliance 3.4%
Za ľudí 2.5%
Others 11.0%

1) Polls in Slovakia are shxt, so don't take this one too seriously (or any other poll, for that matter)
2) The number for Smer is actually at or below what they're getting in other polls, it's just that Hlas is weirdly low in this one
3) Yes, the largest party really gets just over 15%
4) All parties in the governing coalition add up to just 31.2%
5) KDH is right on the threshold as usual and the Hungarian Alliance is going nowhere. Both deserve to get left out yet again imho. At least the PS is doing well, though I absolutely expect them to find a way to fxck it up again.
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Estrella
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« Reply #333 on: February 09, 2022, 11:18:18 AM »

Last week, Minister of Defense Jaroslav Naď visited Washington, met with Antony Blinken and signed a bilateral treaty on defense cooperation with the US, similar to those signed by other NATO members in Eastern Europe. The treaty deals mostly with modernization of Slovak armed forces and bureaucratic aspects of US military presence. Signing (or, for that matter, not signing) the treaty would not mean any major changes in the NATO-Slovakia military relations, but you wouldn't have thought so from the reactions: from hundreds of people protesting in front of the Parliament to Kotleba's loudspeaker vans driving around the Sliač air force base and handing out fliers with names of villages threatened in case of a nuclear attack.

The Prosecutor General Maroš Žilinka (whose office has, as you might have suspected, nothing to do with foreign policy) poured more oil into the fire with some... creative interpretations of history. This prompted the leader of Za ľudí Veronika Remišová, otherwise a drab grey mouse who stays away from political fights, to come up with an unusually HIGH ENERGY statement, accompanied by a picture saying "I, innocent, died by the hand of a Soviet soldier".




"Declaring that the treaty with USSR about the conditions of keeping Soviet troops in ex-Czechoslovakia was more beneficial than the current defense treaty is insane, out of touch with historical reality, but most of all a desecration of memory of victims of the 1968 invasion. The treaty with USSR was signed at gunpoint and the invasion took the lives of more than 100 innocent victims. Declaring this nonsense as the official position of prosecutor's office is a grave violation of its dignity and pulling the institutions and its employees into a primitive political fight."

Of course, the treaty still had to be approved by the legislature. I'll spare you the details of most of the bickering because it was clear it wasn't going to lead anywhere, but I'd just like to highlight one moment from the "debate": the actions of MPs from Kotleba's ĽSNS, the strongest opponents of the treaty and staunch Putin supporters. They took over the lectern and held up the Slovak flag, to which MPs from SaS, the strongest supporters, responded by holding up the Ukrainian flag. Kotleba's people reacted to this like the reasonable adults they are:



Nevertheless, after all the sturm und drang, the treaty passed 79-60 with 8 government MPs voting against. It will be signed by the president in coming days.
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Leading Political Consultant Ma Anand Sheela
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« Reply #334 on: February 09, 2022, 05:41:38 PM »

Man, it's been two years already? Yes, it has - we've nearly reached the middle of the term of this car crash of a government. Admittedly the past few months were a little less chaotic than what came before, but they're still about as popular as the plague.

Something not unconnected to the above: the first Smer poll lead in two years

Smer 15.6%
Hlas 13.5%
SaS 13.5%
PS 10.6%
OĽANO 9.5%
Sme rodina 5.7%
Republika 5.6%
KDH 5.0%
ĽSNS 4.1%
Alliance 3.4%
Za ľudí 2.5%
Others 11.0%

1) Polls in Slovakia are shxt, so don't take this one too seriously (or any other poll, for that matter)
2) The number for Smer is actually at or below what they're getting in other polls, it's just that Hlas is weirdly low in this one
3) Yes, the largest party really gets just over 15%
4) All parties in the governing coalition add up to just 31.2%
5) KDH is right on the threshold as usual and the Hungarian Alliance is going nowhere. Both deserve to get left out yet again imho. At least the PS is doing well, though I absolutely expect them to find a way to fxck it up again.
Was it this difficult for Fico to put down Mečiar and HZDS after 2002 as well?
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Estrella
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« Reply #335 on: February 10, 2022, 07:01:50 PM »

Man, it's been two years already? Yes, it has - we've nearly reached the middle of the term of this car crash of a government. Admittedly the past few months were a little less chaotic than what came before, but they're still about as popular as the plague.

Something not unconnected to the above: the first Smer poll lead in two years

Smer 15.6%
Hlas 13.5%
SaS 13.5%
PS 10.6%
OĽANO 9.5%
Sme rodina 5.7%
Republika 5.6%
KDH 5.0%
ĽSNS 4.1%
Alliance 3.4%
Za ľudí 2.5%
Others 11.0%

1) Polls in Slovakia are shxt, so don't take this one too seriously (or any other poll, for that matter)
2) The number for Smer is actually at or below what they're getting in other polls, it's just that Hlas is weirdly low in this one
3) Yes, the largest party really gets just over 15%
4) All parties in the governing coalition add up to just 31.2%
5) KDH is right on the threshold as usual and the Hungarian Alliance is going nowhere. Both deserve to get left out yet again imho. At least the PS is doing well, though I absolutely expect them to find a way to fxck it up again.
Was it this difficult for Fico to put down Mečiar and HZDS after 2002 as well?

Hard to compare it directly because I can't find any polls for the 2002-2006 term and no-one knows how successful will Pellegrini be, but late stage Mečiar and late stage Fico are pretty similar. Unlike Fico, Mečiar tried to change his image rather than double down on it, but that was balanced out by arguably having an even worse personal reputation.* There is an ostensible difference between 2000s Fico and 2020s Pellegrini: the former was more focused on renewal and appearing as equidistant from both Dzurinda and Mečiar, continuing Dzurinda's pro-Western policies and promising to never enter coalition with Mečiar. Pelle is trying to position himself as Fico without the corruption and general insanity (conspiracy theories, yelling at press conferences etc). But in the end, there isn't much difference between the approaches, given how Fico did a 180 after the 2006 election, formed a coalition with HZDS and SNS and became the left-nationalist we know and don't love.

* Mečiar's anti-democratic stances turned a huge part of the society against him, but with how fragile Slovak democracy was at the time, I'm not sure if that would have been enough for him to lose in 1998. Perhaps what really killed him was not the authoritarianism itself, but the fact it became clear that it was preventing Slovakia from joining the EU - something that was so popular that even Mečiar supported it.
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Estrella
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« Reply #336 on: February 14, 2022, 05:32:32 AM »

To fight rising energy prices, the government has put in place an excess profits tax on nuclear power generation, which supplies more than half of country's electricity. It's an extra 50% tax on revenue over €42 per megawatt-hour. It's an interesting example of how Sulík has transitioned from a libertarian to a normal centre-right liberal. I'm not a huge fan of him, ideologically or personally, but I feel like he's one of the better finance ministers we've had and would be a much better PM than any available alternative.
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Astatine
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« Reply #337 on: February 14, 2022, 03:43:48 PM »

To fight rising energy prices, the government has put in place an excess profits tax on nuclear power generation, which supplies more than half of country's electricity. It's an extra 50% tax on revenue over €42 per megawatt-hour. It's an interesting example of how Sulík has transitioned from a libertarian to a normal centre-right liberal. I'm not a huge fan of him, ideologically or personally, but I feel like he's one of the better finance ministers we've had and would be a much better PM than any available alternative.
Slovenské elektrárne already threatened that this tax might drive the company into bankruptcy and could potentially sink Mochovce 3 & 4 (both reactors are expected to get into operation in the next years), a project into which 6 billion euros had been invested already.
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MaxQue
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« Reply #338 on: February 14, 2022, 04:06:33 PM »

To fight rising energy prices, the government has put in place an excess profits tax on nuclear power generation, which supplies more than half of country's electricity. It's an extra 50% tax on revenue over €42 per megawatt-hour. It's an interesting example of how Sulík has transitioned from a libertarian to a normal centre-right liberal. I'm not a huge fan of him, ideologically or personally, but I feel like he's one of the better finance ministers we've had and would be a much better PM than any available alternative.
Slovenské elektrárne already threatened that this tax might drive the company into bankruptcy and could potentially sink Mochovce 3 & 4 (both reactors are expected to get into operation in the next years), a project into which 6 billion euros had been invested already.

This is bluster, as there no way a tax on excess PROFITS can make a company bankrupt.
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Estrella
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« Reply #339 on: February 15, 2022, 05:51:32 AM »

To fight rising energy prices, the government has put in place an excess profits tax on nuclear power generation, which supplies more than half of country's electricity. It's an extra 50% tax on revenue over €42 per megawatt-hour. It's an interesting example of how Sulík has transitioned from a libertarian to a normal centre-right liberal. I'm not a huge fan of him, ideologically or personally, but I feel like he's one of the better finance ministers we've had and would be a much better PM than any available alternative.
Slovenské elektrárne already threatened that this tax might drive the company into bankruptcy and could potentially sink Mochovce 3 & 4 (both reactors are expected to get into operation in the next years), a project into which 6 billion euros had been invested already.

Yeah, Max has a point. It's just an upset corporation running a scare campaign (latest news is they're threatening mass layoffs). The tax only applies to nuclear power, where the cost of generating electricity is around €28/MW. Besides, as far as I can tell, the company didn't have any problems financing the Mochovce expansion before the prices increased, despite all the delays and cost overruns.

Also, a minor correction to my previous post: Sulík is the Minister of Economy, not Finance.
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Estrella
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« Reply #340 on: March 15, 2022, 11:44:57 AM »




S: I told Moscow you're such a good boy. You have many friends...
G: Yup.
S: ... also in Slovak mafia...
G: Yup.
S: And Moscow decided you're going to be a kind of hunter.
(...)
S: So, how much money do you need?
G: Well, as much as you can give.
S: Five hundred for that friend.
G: Give it to me then and if not, I'll return it.
S: Yes, five hundred for you too?
G: Well, maybe... you know about fuel today...
S: Five hundred for you. (gives G two wads of money)

This is followed by G repeatedly proposing to "befriend" Jaroslav Naď, the Minister of Defence, and S repeatedly telling him it's too dangerous and Moscow won't allow it.

G is Bohuš Garbár, a Kotleba supporter and journalist for the far-right pro-Russian website Hlavné správy, blocked two weeks ago by the Office of National Security. S is Sergey Solomanov, the Russian military attaché in Slovakia. Garbár was arrested on Friday together with at least two people from Slovak Information Service and Ministry of Defence. They were indicted for receiving a bribe and espionage.

In other news, Parliament voted 96-15 to allow NATO troops to be stationed in Slovakia.
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Estrella
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« Reply #341 on: March 24, 2022, 03:24:56 PM »

Slovenská národná strana (SNS) | Slovak National Party | Leader: Andrej Danko | EP group: none, used to be EFD
A self-proclaimed heir to the 19th century Slovak National Party, it was for a long time the most odious party in Slovakia. Back then, their only ideology was fire-breathing nationalism and railing against Roma and especially Slovakia's 9-10% Hungarian minority. During all of this period they were led by Ján Slota, a very, er, colourful figure, best compared perhaps to Vladimir Zhirinovsky.

Assorted quotes, presented for your amusement:
"Of course I drink, I'm not an abstainer, I'm not impotent, I'm a normal Slovak"
"Let them lie down into a sewer and be flushed to the deepest sh*t" - to people who didn't vote for him as mayor of Žilina
"If they were at least beautiful. But those ugly ones, often Gypsies, who can infect hard-working Slovak drivers..." - about prostitutes
"We'll fight for our territory, and we won't give a square centimetre to those fxcking Hungarians...we'll get into tanks and raze Budapest!"

Guess what, Ján Slota is in the news again. He was arrested for acting as a bribery middleman, influencing judges in criminal cases at the Žilina regional court back in 2018.

Now, I wasn't actually aware of a lot of what Slota was up to. I was a kid during his glory days and only knew him as "the drunk 'tanks to Budapest' guy", and I never got that interested in him later, his alcoholic bon mots aside. So I took a look at his Slovak Wikipedia page and... 

Quote
- In 1979, Slota was sentenced to wage garnishment for assault. He was allegedly drunk during the act.

- In 1983, Slota received a suspended sentence of one year for his actions as a mine foreman: he gave his subordinates incorrect orders, resulting in a fire.

- Sentenced for driving under influence, but only given a suspended sentence and having his license taken away each time. He was suspected multiple times of causing accidents due to drunk driving and being present in parliament or on television while under influence.

- Interblue scandal [selling off Slovak emission quotas to a shell corporation at half the actual price], publicized in 2009-2010. No-one was sentenced in the case, although three ministers were removed. In a recording published in 2019, [then minister of finance] Počiatek says about Slota: "He ripped off even Fico, for fxck's sake, because he didn't give him his half, but somehow screwed it up, what a king" and [then prosecutor general] Trnka laughs.

- He was involved in the noticeboard tender scandal [the call for bids on a €120 million public procurement contract was published only on a noticeboard in a private corridor in the building of Ministry of Construction] that resulted in Marián Janušek and Igor Štefanov - two SNS ministers of construction - being sentenced to 11 and 9 years in prison.

- Ján Slota was indicted for endangerment while under influence after he hit a car in front of him with his Porsche Cayenne on 18 January 2016. He refused a breathalyzer test after the accident. In court, he confessed his guilt and regretted the act. He was sentenced to a six years' driving ban. Witnesses stated that he was under influence during the accident and tried to bribe them so that they wouldn't call the police.

- In 2017, Ján Slota was charged with "moral endangerment of youth". In 2014 and 2015, he met with underage girls late at night in restaurants and bars, consumed alcohol in their presence, bought alcohol for them and used sexually suggestive language. The police report was filed by two girls, 15 and 16 years old.

- On 24 April 2013, Slota was expelled from his party. The party council decided this with a two-thirds majority, as a result of a disciplinary hearing on Slota's uneconomical management of party finances.

- On 9 May 2013, Slota did not arrive to a press conference he called. He only announced via a colleague that doesn't want to lead the party any longer. The same day around 5 pm, he was stopped by police in Čadca. After a car chase he was arrested and jailed for driving under influence and not stopping on police orders.
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« Reply #342 on: April 13, 2022, 06:12:06 PM »

- Boris Kollár caused a minor diplomatic stir when he accused Orbán and Putin of wanting to "divide Slovakia between each other" in a TV debate with Fico.

- In crime news, after several years of investigations and delays, ex-President Andrej Kiska has been charged with defrauding the state of €155,000 in VAT in 2013 and 2014. The trial is expected to start soon.

- In more important crime news, ĽSNS leader Marian Kotleba was finally convicted in the €1488 charity cheques case and automatically lost his seat in Parliament. He's disputing this, but the case went all the way to Supreme Court and I doubt he has anywhere else to take it.
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Estrella
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« Reply #343 on: April 20, 2022, 05:42:43 AM »

Finally.

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The Smer former Minister of Interior Robert Kaliňák was arrested by the National Criminal Agency this morning. Together with former PM Robert Fico, he was charged with conspiring to form a criminal group. Fico was not arrested, as he is an MP and a permission from National Council is needed for his arrest.

a song not related in any way whatsoever
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AustralianSwingVoter
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« Reply #344 on: April 20, 2022, 11:11:13 PM »

Is permission from the National Council to arrest Fico a foregone conclusion?
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Estrella
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« Reply #345 on: April 20, 2022, 11:51:15 PM »

Is permission from the National Council to arrest Fico a foregone conclusion?

I think they only need a simple majority, so I'd say it is. Of course, that doesn't guarantee that he won't have to be released after some procedural fxckery. There are still many ways this could go nowhere, but the fact he was officially charged is a huge thing in itself.
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RGM2609
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« Reply #346 on: April 21, 2022, 01:49:05 AM »

Is there any party other than Smer likely to oppose this arrest?
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Estrella
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« Reply #347 on: April 21, 2022, 09:48:41 AM »
« Edited: April 24, 2022, 08:05:58 PM by Estrella »

Is there any party other than Smer likely to oppose this arrest?

Hlas, ĽSNS and Republika will - the first because Pelle was a Smer member for two decades and is unlikely to be much cleaner than his former boss, the second out of a desire to stick to the judicial system after their leader's conviction, the third out of some kind of conspiracy theory about political persecution (that's the officially stated reason of Hlas and ĽSNS too, but it's clear what their motivations really are).

Talking about ĽSNS, their caucus was dissolved after Kotleba lost his mandate. I've written about it earlier in this thread, but rules on formation of parliamentary groups are very strict: only parties that won MPs in the last election can form groups, and MPs that found a new party are officially independents. It's always fun to see media trolling Hlas by calling them an extraparliamentary party even though they have 11 MPs. This also means that techinically, 36 MPs, or nearly one quarter of the parliament, are officially indepedents (and also that we're only halfway through the term and 1 in 4 of representatives have left the party on whose list they were elected, which doesn't sound very democratic, but whatever).

Reacting to this, ĽSNS put out an official statement channeling Ján Slota:

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The decision signed by the Hungarian deputy speaker of the parliament Gábor Grendel (OĽANO) is invalid...
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Estrella
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« Reply #348 on: May 05, 2022, 04:18:34 AM »
« Edited: May 05, 2022, 05:08:58 AM by Estrella »

Is permission from the National Council to arrest Fico a foregone conclusion?

I think they only need a simple majority, so I'd say it is.

Small correction: they need an absolute majority. That's 76 votes. I don't expect that to change anyth-

hahahahahahaha 74 yes, 49 no, 19 abstained, 8 present but did not vote

Thanks Sme rodina (abstentions) and Hatráková with Tabák* (two OĽaNO MPs who voted no and were immediately expelled from the party). FWIW, Sulík is calling this "the biggest defeat in Matovič's political career" and the SaS caucus chairwoman called a press conference where she publicly mused about whether there's any point to continuing the coalition.

* Romana Tabák, known for 1) being a former tennis player 2) making an idiot of herself 3) opposing the delivery of Slovak S-300 missiles to Ukraine, to which the minister of defense replied "the only rocket Tabák understands is the tennis one"
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AustralianSwingVoter
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« Reply #349 on: May 05, 2022, 04:51:39 AM »

Is permission from the National Council to arrest Fico a foregone conclusion?

I think they only need a simple majority, so I'd say it is.

Small correction: they need an absolute majority. That's 76 votes. I don't expect that to change anyth-

hahahahahahaha 74 yes, 49 no, 19 abstained, 8 present but did not vote

Thanks Sme rodina (abstentions) and Hatráková with Tabák* (two OĽaNO MPs who voted yes and were immediately expelled from the party). FWIW, Sulík is calling this "the biggest defeat in Matovič's political career" and the SaS caucus chairwoman called a press conference where she publicly mused about whether there's any point to continuing the coalition.

* Romana Tabák, known for 1) being a former tennis player 2) making an idiot of herself 3) opposing the delivery of Slovak S-300 missiles to Ukraine, to which the minister of defense replied "the only rocket Tabák understands is the tennis one"

Oh my god that's hilarious. Is this vote final and irreversible unless new charges are laid?
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