Slovak Elections and Politics | Fico the Fourth 🇸🇰

[AustralianSwingVoter]

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

[AustralianSwingVoter]

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?

[AustralianSwingVoter]

So what's happening with Fico's referendum now the government has fell?

[AustralianSwingVoter]

It's just rumors for now, but there's talk of how this might have been the last straw for Heger and a serious split in OĽANO is on the way.

What better time for a split than when you’re polling at 6%. If you don’t like that you don’t like Slovak politics.

[AustralianSwingVoter]

On the centre-right, well... the party that won the last election and the party led by the Prime Minister could both end up out of Parliament.

Slovak Politics speedrun Any% world record.

[AustralianSwingVoter]

The Matovic/Heger experiment finally collapsing from a fairly uninspired corruption by a not especially important minister would be so poetic. To be brought down by such an underwhelming final straw.

[AustralianSwingVoter]

Also can foreign nationals apply for OLaNO's lottery? Could use a new t shirt!

Well, firstly you need to “found your army” and “GET MORE FIGHTERS for your army”, so take that as you will

This is beyond amazing. Matovic is going out in a blaze of parody. Are you signed up for a T-shirt? 

[AustralianSwingVoter]

But none of the above will take the prize for the being most absurd event of the campaign. That event happened just today.

The most absurd event of the campaign so far lmao.

[AustralianSwingVoter]

I thought about making some kind of showcase of each party's campaign stuff, but midway through writing it I realized that no-one decides based on posters or ads or whatever anyway. Instead here's Part the Second:

Given what you’ve shown of past Slovak campaigns (Smer’s bare ass cheek posters, Mečiar deciding he needs celeb endorsements and choosing Claudia Schiffer and Gerard Depardieu, absurd campaign jingles and so much more) I’d certainly be interested in any crazy campaign advertising the politicians have got up to this time.

[AustralianSwingVoter]

Sme rodina, Dems and Alliance out.

Zoroslav Kollár popping champagne rn

[AustralianSwingVoter]

PS+Hlas+Olano = 77 (although probably impossible given Olano's past... challenges)

It would be peak Slovakia 🇸🇰

[AustralianSwingVoter]

PS+Hlas+Olano = 77 (although probably impossible given Olano's past... challenges)

It would be peak Slovakia 🇸🇰

New cursed coalition idea. What if Fico hates Pellegrini but still desperately craves power:
Smer+Olano+KDH+SNS = 80

[AustralianSwingVoter]

lmao, per your keys there's some village that voted 88% for Sme Rodina? Is it just a hideaway for Boris's girlfriends?

[AustralianSwingVoter]

(I don't know if y'all love Streetviewing random places as much as I do, but I'm putting it here anyway).

I certainly enjoy it!

[AustralianSwingVoter]

SNS as angry reactionaries got culture and MUH BEARS.

Same energy

[AustralianSwingVoter]

(who the fxck wrote this and have they ever heard of sentence breaks)

Must’ve got their degree like Matovic and Kollar did lol.

[AustralianSwingVoter]

Firstly, Igor Matovič announced he's going to rename OĽANO to, I shxt you not, SLOVENSKO ("SLOVAKIA").

How could be betray so many Ordinary People. Not to mention all the Independent Personalities 

[AustralianSwingVoter]

— As of right now, Gábor Grendel (OĽANO/Slovensko) has been reading an amendment to the budget for the last six hours.

Who else would do the Mr Smith Goes to Washington than Mr. Grendel the ordinary person with an independent personality.

[AustralianSwingVoter]

They may also call an early election using an absurdly complicated procedure that has never been used because all were called by one-off constitutional amendments to get around the fixed terms.

How exactly does the convoluted official procedure work then? Must be interestingly weird given how many times they've literally amended the constitution to avoid it.

[AustralianSwingVoter]

I want to know what they were smoking when they wrote the second point, and when they translated it: the Slovak version actually doesn't mention the "of the formation of a Government" bit at all, and the way it's written in English the clause would only apply in the first three months of the government's term. The correct version isn't much better – it only applies when the government declares a bill a matter of confidence and not when the opposition presents a no confidence motion. The clause could have been used in 2012 – Radičová's government fell because she tied the vote on the European Stability Mechanism with a vote of confidence – but they would have to wait thirty days before the election could be called, so they just said fxck it and went with another constitutional amendment.

So if it worked honestly it's a Robert Muldoon situation. Government has confidence of the house but not on a specific legislative policy like nuclear power, needs to force the issue at an election.
Or alternatively a government might go all Ted Heath and "Who Governs Slovakia!" and exploit it like Helmut Kohl did.

[AustralianSwingVoter]

As far as I know, there's only one detailed map of results of any First Republic election anywhere on the internet. It's 1929 here, along with some background on the circumstances of the election and making of the map... drawing and coloring 3500-ish municipalities in Paint by hand? Ew.

Interwar Slovak politics be like (Agrarians get no silver , William Jennings Bryan in shambles)

As for other ethnicities, aside from the near-complete disappearance of Jews for obvious reasons (side note: people who claim that Tiso and Tuka genuinely didn't know what was going to happen to the people they sent to Auschwitz need to [redacted]), the only notable change is the fall in the percentage of Hungarians, some of whom were deported to Hungary or to depopulated Sudetenland. Otherwise the patterns are pretty much the same.

[AustralianSwingVoter]

Helena Mezenská (ind. voodoo spiritual lunatic) 5.1%

So she has Marianne Williamson vibes? No wonder she's such an Ordinary Person and Independent Personality!

[AustralianSwingVoter]

Are the random Matovic municipalities still mostly gypsy like in the parliament elections?

[AustralianSwingVoter]

with fabricated quotes about how he thinks Matovič is an idiot

… this is supposed to be a controversial attack???

[AustralianSwingVoter]

This, by the way, should be a serious reality check for anyone who still thinks Hlas is a Nice Guy FF normal-ish social democratic party. They aren't.

Ending your campaign with a discussion with Babiš speaks volumes to this regard. But I guess he's actually a social democrat because he was in the czech stasi?